Yoshihiro Kawaoka (河岡 義裕, Kawaoka Yoshihiro, born November 14, 1955) is a virologist specializing in the study of the influenza and Ebola viruses.

He holds a professorship in virology in the Department of Pathobiological Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, and at the University of Tokyo, Japan.

Following the West African Ebola virus epidemic of 2014, Kawaoka began development of an Ebola vaccine working in close coordination with Alhaji N'jai a toxicologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and his non-profit organization Project 1808, Inc.[1] Kawaoka created a new virus based on H5N1, which he revealed to the public in 2011.

His research was halted by a moratorium issued from the US government in 2014.

[3][4] Dan Brown mentioned the experiment in his novel Inferno.