Nathan Wolfe has spent his life studying deadly viruses to detect worldwide disease pandemics before they kill millions. He is founder and executive chairman of Global Viral, a non-profit organization promoting understanding, exploration and stewardship of the microbial world. Wolfe’s endeavors coordinate over one hundred scientists and staff around the planet by spotting viruses as soon as they surface through collecting and cataloguing blood samples, surveying wild animals, scanning urban blood banks and documenting the transfer and distribution of disease. Armed with high-tech tools and a small army of fieldworkers, Nathan Wolfe hopes to re-invent pandemic control and reveal hidden secrets of the planet’s dominant lifeform: the virus.
Nathan Wolfe will be in conversation with Shannon Bennett who is the Academy’s first ever Associate Curator of Microbiology. In this new position, she broadens the Academy’s research scope to include a dedicated focus on viruses and bacteria. Her specialty lies in infectious diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans.