Dr. Nathan
Wolfe is the Lorry I. Lokey Visiting Professor in Human Biology at
Stanford University and Director of the Global Viral Forecasting Initiative. He
received his bachelor's degree from Stanford in 1993 and his doctorate in
Immunology & Infectious Diseases from Harvard in 1998. The recipient of a
Fulbright fellowship in 1997, Dr. Wolfe was awarded the National Institutes of
Health (NIH) International Research Scientist Development Award in 1999 and the
prestigious NIH Director's Pioneer Award in 2005.
Dr. Wolfe has published more than 50 articles and chapters. Among his major
findings include the discovery of the first evidence of natural transmission of
retroviruses from nonhuman primates to humans. His work has been published in
or covered by Nature, Science, The Lancet, PNAS, JAMA, The New York Times,
The Economist, Wired, Discover, Scientific American, NPR, Popular Science, Seed,
and Forbes. He has received research support totaling over $20 million
in grants and contracts from the Google.org, The Skoll Foundation, NIH, the
National Science Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the
National Geographic Society, Merck Research Laboratories and various branches
of the U.S. Department of Defense, including: the Global Emerging Infections
Surveillance & Response System (GEIS), HIV/AIDS Prevention Program (DHAPP),
and the U.S. Military HIV Research Program (USMHRP). He has extensive
consulting experience and has served on a number of advisory and editorial
boards, including, since 2004, the editorial board of EcoHealth and since 2008,
DARPA's Defense Science Research Council (DSRC).
Dr. Wolfe has more than eight years of full-time experience living and
conducting biomedical research in Southeast Asia (Malaysia) and sub-Saharan
Africa (Cameroon, Uganda). He founded and directs the Global Viral Forecasting
Initiative (GVFI), a pandemic early warning system which monitors the spillover
of novel infectious agents from animals into humans. GVFI coordinates
activities of more than 100 scientists and staff from countries around the
world. He currently has active research and public health projects in Cameroon,
China, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of
the Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Lao, Madagascar, Malaysia and Sao Tome.
Dr. Wolfe was named as one of Popular Science's ‘Brilliant 10' (2005) and
Rolling Stone's ‘Top 100 Agents of Change', (#53, 2009). His work has been featured in documentaries for National Geographic and CNN's
Planet in Peril, and he has had multiple appearances on NPR and National
Geographic Weekend.