Tara Smith | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Alma mater | University of Toledo Yale University |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | University of Iowa Kent State University |
| Website | taracsmith.com/ |
Tara C. Smith is an American epidemiologist and science communicator. She is a professor at the Kent State University College of Public Health who studies zoonotic infections. Smith was the first to identify strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus associated with livestock in the United States.
Smith has a Bachelor of Science in biology from Yale University. [1] [2] She earned her PhD in microbiology at the University of Toledo, where she investigated Streptococcus pyogenes . [1] [2] [3] She completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Michigan. [2]
In 2004 Smith joined the University of Iowa College of Public Health. [4] She has received over $3 million in research funding, primarily from Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, United States Department of Agriculture and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. [4] [5]
Smith identified that 45% of pig farmers and 49% of hogs farmers carried Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). [6] [7] [8] She went on to identify that almost 40% of people with MRSA contain the strain associated with livestock. [9] [10] The work was described as one of the most comprehensive investigations into the spread of MRSA by the journal Nature. [11] She is distinguishing the Staphylococcus aureus strains around Iowa City, by characterizing the DNA around several places in the genome. [11] She compared strains related to ST398, a sequence type that is associated with livestock but not expected to cause infection, from around the world. [12] She found that meat that is sold with the claim it contains no antibiotics contains the highest levels of the garden-type of S. aureus. [13] Her research has been covered by The New York Times. [6] Smith has also studied and written about vaccine hesitancy. [14]
She joined the Kent State University College of Public Health in 2013 as an associate professor. [4] [14] In 2015 Smith was appointed an American Society for Microbiology Distinguished Lecturer. [15] In 2017 she became a full professor at Kent State. [14] Her light-hearted Christmas contribution [16] to the British Medical Journal on the likelihood of a Zombie apocalypse was covered extensively in the mainstream media. [17] [18] [19] Following the Zika virus outbreak, Smith wrote several articles to provide advice for members of the public. [20] [21] She went on to use zombies to demonstrate how diseases were spread. [22] [23] [24] Smith has written books on Ebola virus, Streptococcus pyogenes and S. agalactiae. [25] [26] [27] [28]
In late February 2020 the Wall Street Journal called her "a prominent infectious-disease specialist" when reporting on her tweet [29] criticizing the White House's attempt to control messaging about the novel coronavirus outbreak. [30]
Smith takes part in several initiatives to improve the public understanding of science. [31] She writes a regular column for Self . [2] She started the science blog Aetiology in 2005. [32] Her research has appeared in the popular science books Pig Tales: An Omnivore's Quest for Sustainable Meat and Superbug: the Fatal Menace of MRSA. [33] [34] She has featured on podcasts, including Science for the People, Talk Nerdy and the Meet the Microbiologist podcast of the American Society for Microbiology. [35] [36] [37] [38] She has been interviewed by Gizmodo , New Statesman and the Los Angeles Times . [39] [40] [41]
Smith lives with her partner and three children in rural Ohio. [2]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Other | |
