Francis is Professor of Global Health and Tuberculosis at Imperial College, London and an NHS Consultant clinical and public health microbiologist and physician. He has 30 years’ experience in clinical and public health aspects of infectious diseases including running respiratory disease research programmes focusing on TB/HIV infections, COVID19, molecular diagnostics, vaccines and antimicrobial drug resistance, with integration of clinical, biological and social themes. He was Director of the UK National TB center for 19 years, a consultant to the WHO, and was an NHS Community Foundation Hospital Trust Non-Executive Director focusing on End-of-Life, pandemic and disability related issues for the Board.  He is a member of the NICE TAC committee which determines which drugs will be offered by the NHS. He founded and remains a member of the ECDC TB Reference Laboratory Network and was a member of the WHO HQ Strategic Technical Advisory Group and Chair of WHO European Laboratory Initiative on TB, HIV and viral hepatitis. He was elected a Fellow of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in 2017 and Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology in 2025.