Dr. Peter Daszak has worked for more than 25 years in infectious disease and conservation research and outreach, designing and managing international collaborative programs in over 45 countries. He is the President of the nonprofit Nature Health Global, and former President of EcoHealth Alliance. He is a member of the US National Academy of Medicine, and Editor-in-Chief of the Springer-Nature journal EcoHealth.
Dr. Daszak has raised over $150 million for scientific research, conservation programs and international projects from major donors, corporations, foundations and Federal agencies. He was in in the leadership team of USAID PREDICT 1 & 2 ($240 million over 10yrs for emerging disease research and outreach), was Chief-of-Party for USAID IDEEAL, and has been PI on ~10 multi-year NIH and NSF grants. He has published over 325 scientific papers on the origins and drivers of emerging diseases involving diverse disciplines from conservation biology, virology, ecology and environmental sustainability to community outreach programs that reduce the risk of disease emergence.
Dr. Daszak’s research successes include discovering the bat origin of SARS-CoV, MERS-CoVs, SADS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2, identifying the drivers of Nipah virus emergence, identification of chytridiomycosis as the cause global amphibian declines, and publishing the first global emerging disease ‘hotspots’ map. Dr. Daszak is a member of the National Academies Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases & 21st Century Health Threats, and former Chair of NASEM’s Forum on Microbial Threats. He has served on panels, committees and advisory boards to the US National Research Council, Future Earth, two Lancet commissions (One Health & COVID-19), WHO R&D Blueprint program for pathogen prioritization, and the WHO-China Joint Study on the Animal Origins of COVID-19.
Dr. Daszak won the 2000 CSIRO medal for collaborative research on the discovery of amphibian chytridiomycosis and has been ranked by the Web of Science as a Highly Cited Researcher in multiple years.