The Deans' Forum on Infectious Diseases - September 28-29, 2008

On behalf of the Virginia Tech Council of Deans, we invite you to join us for the Deans’ Forum on Infectious Diseases. This is the fourth in a series of forums that is intended to showcase activities within the University targeted at issues of topical interest to society. Previous forums have focused on energy and sustainability, on the environment, and on health, food and nutrition.

The topic for the upcoming forum will be on significant aspects of infectious diseases, including prevention and control, on infectious diseases ecology and epidemiology, on molecular pathogenesis, and on host-pathogen interactions. Within a comprehensive University such as Virginia Tech, it is quite likely for an individual scientist to be working on specific areas that could have an impact in a broader context, but not know what other research is being carried out both locally and elsewhere, that will be of benefit to her or his project. The showcase we are organizing is aimed at providing a venue for broader dissemination of ideas, and opportunities for collaborations that can only lead to a more rapid and effective means of reaching research goals.

The forum will begin with an address by the keynote speaker, Dr. Lonnie King from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on Sunday, September 28. This will be followed by plenary talks on Monday, September 29. There will be poster sessions and ample time slotted for off-line discussions. We hope you will consider submitting abstracts for presentations on this day.

We invite you to browse this website for further details, and we look forward very much to you joining us in this event.

Lay Nam Chang
Dean, College of Science

Gerhardt G. Schurig
Dean, Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine