Denise Ellen Kirschner is an American mathematical biologist and immunologist whose research topics include granulomas, HIV, tuberculosis, and the mechanisms by which disease pathogens interact with and persist in their hosts. She is a professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Michigan, [1] co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Theoretical Biology , [2] and former president of the Society for Mathematical Biology.
Kirschner graduated from Tulane University in 1985, and completed her Ph.D. there in 1991. [3] Her dissertation, Mathematical Modeling of the AIDS Virus in Epidemiology and Immunology, was jointly supervised by Jerome Goldstein and James (Mac) Hyman. [4]
After postdoctoral research at Vanderbilt University, she was an assistant professor at Texas A&M University from 1994 to 1997 before moving to the University of Michigan. [3]
She was president of the Society for Mathematical Biology from 2017 to 2019. [5] She is a speaker of the IBS Biomedical Mathematics Group. [6]
Kirschner was listed as one of the inaugural Fellows of the Society for Mathematical Biology, in the class of 2017. [5] She was named a SIAM Fellow in the 2021 class of fellows, "for contributions to modeling pathogen-host interactions and host immune response in infectious diseases and training in mathematical biology/immunology". [7]
The American Society for Microbiology (ASM), originally the Society of American Bacteriologists, is a professional organization for scientists who study viruses, bacteria, fungi, algae, and protozoa as well as other aspects of microbiology. It was founded in 1899. The Society publishes a variety of scientific journals, textbooks, and other educational materials related to microbiology and infectious diseases. ASM organizes annual meetings, as well as workshops and professional development opportunities for its members.
Marc Wallace Kirschner is an American cell biologist and biochemist and the founding chair of the Department of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School. He is known for major discoveries in cell and developmental biology related to the dynamics and function of the cytoskeleton, the regulation of the cell cycle, and the process of signaling in embryos, as well as the evolution of the vertebrate body plan. He is a leader in applying mathematical approaches to biology. He is the John Franklin Enders University Professor at Harvard University. In 2021 he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.
Stanley "Stan" Falkow was an American microbiologist and a professor of microbiology at Georgetown University, University of Washington, and Stanford University School of Medicine. Falkow is known as the father of the field of molecular microbial pathogenesis. He formulated molecular Koch's postulates, which have guided the study of the microbial determinants of infectious diseases since the late 1980s. Falkow spent over 50 years uncovering molecular mechanisms of how bacteria cause disease and how to disarm them. Falkow also was one of the first scientists to investigate antimicrobial resistance, and presented his research extensively to scientific, government, and lay audiences explaining the spread of resistance from one organism to another, now known as horizontal gene transfer, and the implications of this phenomenon on our ability to combat infections in the future.
Eduardo Daniel Sontag is an Argentine-American mathematician, and distinguished university professor at Northeastern University, who works in the fields control theory, dynamical systems, systems molecular biology, cancer and immunology, theoretical computer science, neural networks, and computational biology.
The College of Sciences at the University of Texas at San Antonio in San Antonio, Texas is a science and research education college. The college hosts more than 6000 students enrolled in fifteen undergraduate programs and nineteen graduate programs. The eight departments employ over 300 tenure and non-tenure track faculty members. Students collaborate through programs with local external research institutions including UT Health Science Center, Southwest Research Institute and the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research.
Carlos Castillo-Chavez is a Mexican-American mathematician who was Regents Professor and Joaquín Bustoz Jr. Professor of Mathematical Biology at Arizona State University. Castillo-Chavez was founder and the Executive Director of the Mathematical and Theoretical Biology Institute (MTBI) and the Institute for Strengthening the Understanding of Mathematics and Science. For 2019, Castillo-Chavez was Provost Visiting Professor in the Applied Mathematics Division and Data Science Initiative at Brown University. Castillo-Chavez retired from Arizona State University at the end of spring 2020.
Almyra Oveta Fuller was an associate professor of microbiology and immunology at University of Michigan Medical School. She served as the director of the African Studies Center (ASC), faculty in the ASC STEM Initiative at the University of Michigan (U-M) and an adjunct professor at Payne Theological Seminary. Fuller was a virologist and specialized in research of Herpes simplex virus, as well as HIV/AIDS. Fuller and her research team discovered a B5 receptor, advancing the understanding of Herpes simplex virus and the cells it attacks.
Abba Gumel is a Professor & The Michael and Eugenia Brin Endowed E-Nnovate Chair in Mathematics at the Department of Mathematics, University of Maryland, College Park. His research, which spans three main areas of applied mathematics, is focused on the use of mathematical modeling and rigorous approaches, together with statistical analysis, to gain insight into the dynamics of real-life phenomena arising in the natural and engineering sciences. The main emphasis of Gumel's work is on the mathematical theory of epidemics – specifically, he uses mathematical theories and methodologies to gain insights into the qualitative behavior of nonlinear dynamical systems arising from the mathematical modelling of phenomena in the natural and engineering sciences, with emphasis on the transmission dynamics and control of emerging and re-emerging human infectious diseases of public health and socio-economic interest.
Akiko Iwasaki is a Sterling Professor of Immunobiology and Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at Yale University. She is also a principal investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Her research interests include innate immunity, autophagy, inflammasomes, sexually transmitted infections, herpes simplex virus, human papillomavirus, respiratory virus infections, influenza infection, T cell immunity, commensal bacteria, COVID-19, and long COVID.
Suzanne Marie Lenhart is an American mathematician who works in partial differential equations, optimal control and mathematical biology. She is a Chancellor's Professor of mathematics at the University of Tennessee, an associate director for education and outreach at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis, and a part-time researcher at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Arturo Casadevall is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Molecular Microbiology & Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and the Alfred and Jill Sommer Professor and Chair of the W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is an internationally recognized expert in infectious disease research, with a focus on fungal and bacterial pathogenesis and basic immunology of antibody structure-function. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2022.
Michael A. Savageau is a Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics and Biomedical Engineering at The University of California, Davis. He was named Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2013 for application of systems engineering concepts to molecular biology.
Ralph R. Isberg is a professor at Tufts University School of Medicine known for his contributions to understanding microbial pathogenesis. He is a member of the American National Academy of Sciences and was an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute for 27 years. A microbiologist, Isberg has published over 185 peer-reviewed articles and is or has been an editor of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PLoS Pathogens, and Journal of Experimental Medicine, among others.
Qing Nie is a mathematician and systems biology researcher. He is a Chancellor's Professor of Mathematics, Developmental and Cell Biology, and Biomedical Engineering at University of California, Irvine. He is also the director of the Center for Mathematical and Computational Biology and the NSF-Simons Center for Multiscale Cell Fate Research at the University.
Michele S. Swanson is an American biologist who is a professor of microbiology at the University of Michigan. She has investigated the water-borne pathogen Legionella pneumophila. Swanson is interested in the metabolic cues that underpin the virulence of L. pneumophila and how it is transmitted to humans. She served as president of the American Society for Microbiology in 2018.
Kathryn J. Moore is a Canadian-born American biomedical scientist and cell biologist. She is the Jean and David Blechman Professor of Cardiology and the founding director of the Cardiovascular Research Center at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine. Moore's research considers the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis, with a focus on the identification of novel therapeutic targets. She was elected Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences in 2021.
Laura Piddock is a microbiologist, specialising in antibiotics and antibiotic resistance in bacteria. She is Professor Emerita at the University of Birmingham, UK and also Scientific Director within the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership.
David A. Fidock, is the CS Hamish Young Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and Professor of Medical Sciences at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in Manhattan.
Shabaana A. Khader is an Indian-American microbiologist who is the Bernard and Betty Roizman Professor of Microbiology at the University of Chicago. She is also the Chair of the Department of Microbiology. In an effort to design new vaccines and therapeutic strategies, Khader studies host-pathogen interactions in infectious disease.
Denise M. Monack is an American microbiologist who is the Martha Meier Weiland Professor and chair of the department of microbiology and immunology at the Stanford University School of Medicine.