Nathan Wolfe

Dr. Nathan Wolfe is the Lorry I. Lokey Visiting Professor in Human Biology at Stanford University. Dr. Wolfe founded and leads Global Viral Forecasting — a for-profit, for-good global leader in infectious disease surveillance and biomedical research, whose mission is to develop a global system to predict and prevent pandemics. 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. He was chosen as a National Geographic Emerging Explorer in 2009 and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader in 2010 and was selected as one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2011.

Dr. Wolfe has published over 80 articles and chapters, and the recent book, The Viral Storm published by Henry Holt and Company. 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 $20m 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 US Department of Defense, including: the Global Emerging Infections Surveillance & Response System (GEIS), HIV/AIDS Prevention Program (DHAPP), and the US 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 over 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 a pandemic early warning system which monitors the spillover of novel infectious agents from animals into humans. The network coordinates activities of over 100 scientists and staff from countries around the world. He currently has active research and public health projects in Cameroon, China, Central African Republic, DR Congo, PR Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Lao, Madagascar, Malaysia and Sao Tome.