Mapping the Spread of Disease

Laura Bloomfield, ’07, MS ’10, is pursuing her doctorate in E-IPER concurrently with her MD degree. Her PhD fieldwork is based in Kibale National Forest in western Uganda, where she investigates the transmission of retroviruses between human and nonhuman primate populations.

“My research combines methods and theory from anthropology, ecology, epidemiology, and medicine,” she says. “I hope this work will feed into the larger framework of how we understand infectious disease transmission between people and wildlife and how we might intervene in the event that a new disease emerges.”