Contagion: Exploring Modern Epidemics
Epidemic disease spreads quickly in our interconnected, globalized world. This symposium looks at new ways of tracking epidemics using big data and social networks to predict and stem the rise of emergent diseases.
Epidemiologists, journalists, physicians, public officials, scientists, and sociologists will discuss their cutting-edge research, prediction mechanisms, and possible solutions to the range of epidemics that face our world today—from Ebola and SARS to the more recently recognized social epidemics of the opioid crisis and gun violence.
The symposium will conclude with a talk by Laurie Garrett, a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who specializes in global public health and foreign policy.
#radsciepidemics
Event Videos
Infectious Disease
INTRODUCTION
Lizabeth Cohen, dean, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies, Department of History, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
FRAMING REMARKS
Janet Rich-Edwards, faculty codirector of the science program, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study; associate professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School; associate professor, Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
INFECTIOUS DISEASE
Christian T. Happi, professor of molecular biology and genomics; director, African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases; director, Directorate of Research Innovations and Partnerships, Redeemer’s University (Nigeria)
Anne W. Rimoin (46:38), associate professor, Department of Epidemiology, UCLA School of Public Health
Celina Maria Turchi Martelli (1:03:30), physician and researcher, Aggeu Magalhães Research Center, Fundação Oswaldo Crus (Brazil)
Moderator: Marcia Castro, associate professor of demography, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Kevin M. Esvelt
Kevin M. Esvelt, leader, Sculpting Evolution Group; assistant professor of media arts and sciences, MIT Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Big Data
James M. Wilson, associate research professor, School of Community Health Sciences, and director, Nevada Medical Intelligence Center, University of Nevada, Reno; director, Ascel Bio National Infectious Disease Forecast Station
C. Jessica E. Metcalf, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and public affairs, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University
Ami S. Bhatt, assistant professor of medicine (hematology) and of genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine
Moderator: Caroline Buckee, associate professor of epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Social Roots
Daphne C. Watkins, associate professor of social work and director of the Joint PhD Program in Social Work and Social Science, School of Social Work, University of Michigan; assistant professor of psychiatry, University of Michigan Medical School
Andrew Kolodny, senior scientist and codirector of opioid policy research, Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University; executive director, Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing
Andrew Papachristos, associate professor of sociology, Yale University
Moderator: Michelle A. Williams, dean of the faculty and professor of epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Keynote Address by Laurie Garrett
Laurie Garrett, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist specializing in global public health and foreign policy writer
CLOSING REMARKS
Janet Rich-Edwards, faculty codirector of the science program, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study; associate professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School; associate professor, Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
