Mary Dobson is an historian of medicine and an expert in the history of tropical and infectious diseases. She is the author of numerous books and articles ranging from academic titles to popular science and history, including Disease: The Extraordinary Stories Behind History's Deadliest Killers (Quercus). She has held a number of prestigious Research Fellowships and was Director of the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine and Fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford.