Dr John McCauley was formerly Director of the Worldwide Influenza Centre at the Francis Crick Institute in London from which he retired in April 2023. The Centre is one of the seven WHO Collaborating Centres for Influenza and forms part of the WHO Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System. The work is directed to monitoring virus samples from WHO National Influenza Centres from across the globe to develop with the other WHO Collaborating Centres for Influenza recommendations for the composition for seasonal influenza vaccines and vaccines from zoonotic influenza viruses recommended for pandemic preparedness purposes.