Karl Ljungberg, Ph.D., has served as Program Director, New Initiatives at the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) since 2024. In this role, he leads the identification, scientific evaluation, onboarding, and advancement of new vaccine and biotechnology opportunities, while supporting strategic partnerships, business development, and resource mobilization. He brings more than two decades of experience spanning academia, public health, and the biotechnology industry.

Before joining IVI, Karl held leadership positions in vaccine research and development, including Director of Preclinical Research at Simplexia and Director of Preclinical Development at Eurocine Vaccines. He also served as a senior scientist at Karolinska Institutet and the Public Health Agency of Sweden. His work has focused on the development of vaccines and enabling technologies targeting infectious diseases such as HIV, chikungunya, Ebola, tuberculosis, SARS, pneumococcal disease, and influenza. His research at Karolinska Institutet contributed to the development of IXCHIQ, the world’s first licensed chikungunya vaccine.

Karl has authored or co-authored approximately 50 scientific publications, reviews, patents, and book chapters, and serves as Associate Editor for the Vaccines section of Frontiers in Immunology. He completed postdoctoral training in viral vaccine vectors and tumor vaccines at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Karolinska Institutet. He holds a Ph.D. in Infectious Disease Control from Karolinska Institutet and an M.Sc. in Molecular Biology from Stockholm University.