Maria Van Kerkhove is an infectious disease epidemiologist who works as Scientific, Technical Lead MERS-CoV at the World Health Organization (WHO). He specializes in outbreaks of emerging and re-emerging pathogens. Dr. Van Kerkhove is from the United States and lives in Geneva Switzerland. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she became a regular face at press conferences by WHO for regular updates regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Wiki/Biography
Maria Van Kerkhove (formerly DeJoseph) was born on Sunday, February 20, 1977 (age 43 years; as in 2020) in the United States. She is a native of New Hartford, New York. She grew up inspired by the stories of virus hunters and epidemiologists recorded in Richard Preston’s books. While attending New Hartford High School in New York, it was his AP Biology teacher who sparked his interest in science and led him on the path to Cornell, Stanford, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Talking about her interest in studying viruses, Dr. Van Kerkhove says,
I liked the idea of studying viruses and pathogens and how they co-evolve with people. I like this kind of detective work.”
In 1999, he completed his graduate degree in biological sciences at Cornell University. After receiving her MS degree in Epidemiology from Stanford University School of Medicine in 2000, Maria Van Kerkhove completed her PhD in Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in 2009. While pursuing his PhD, he wrote his thesis on avians. Flu in Cambodia.
Physical Appearance
Height (Approx): 5′ 4″
Hair Color: Medium Ash Blonde
Eye colour: Hazel brown
Family and ethnicity
Maria Van Kerkhove comes from a white American family.
parents and siblings
Maria Van Kerkhove was born to Mary (mother) and Peter Joseph (father). His parents are natives of Cedar Lake, a town in Hanover and Center Township, Lake County, Indiana, United States. He has a twin sister, Alissa.
Relationships, Husband and Children
Maria Van Kerkhove married Neil James Van Kerkhove on September 13, 2003 in Manhattan, New York.
Maria Van Kerkhove’s husband Neil James Van Kerkhove
He has two sons. They have a son named Cole.
livelihood
After spending his college summers studying the way indigenous peoples used plants for medicinal purposes in Mexico, Costa Rica and Venezuela, Dr. Van Kerkhove worked for five years at a consulting firm in New York , where he learned to synthesize as much information as possible. Evaluating the risks. His Ph.D. thesis on avian flu sent him to Cambodia where he studied H5N1 influenza. Dr. Van Kerkhove spent his days in Cambodia surveying live animal markets and exploring how a virus could spread through a community. Following the global outbreak of H1N1 in 2009, Dr. Van Kerkhove joined WHO’s flu team in April 2009, where she worked closely with academic modelers and analytics experts and public health experts.
From left, Michael Ryan, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Professor Didier Houssein, and Maria Van Kerkhove.
From March 2009 to January 2015, she was a Research Fellow at Imperial College London, where she worked in the Medical Research Council Center for Outbreak Analysis and Modelling. In January 2015, she joined the Center for Global Health at the Institut Pasteur as head of the Outbreak Investigation Task Force, where she conducted field research on respiratory viruses and emerging/re-emerging viruses such as Ebola and Marburg. During his tenure at the Institut Pasteur, a Paris-based network of global health organizations, Dr. Van Kerkhove established rapid response and investigation teams aimed at detecting new outbreaks around the world.
Maria Van Kerkhove (second from left) attending the 2017 Institut Pasteur OMI Seminar in Pandemics
In 2017, she moved to WHO permanently, and since then, she holds the position of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) Technical Lead in the High Threat Pathogen Unit in the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Programme.
Maria Van Kerkhove as Technical Lead WHO
Speaking about his career dealing with high-threat pathogens, Dr. Van Kerkhove says,
The theme of my life has been around viruses and emerging pathogens and how we study their emergence from animals to humans, and how we stop it.
A regular face of WHO
Since Maria Van Kerkhove moved to WHO permanently in 2017, her portfolio has grown to include a frightening roster of zoonotic diseases that can spread from animals to humans; Caused by high-risk pathogens such as SARS, Zika, chikungunya, bubonic plague, and smallpox. Amid the worldwide lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she became a regular face at press conferences by WHO for regular updates about the COVID-19 pandemic.
Maria Van Kerkhove during a WHO press conference
According to Dr. Van Kerkhove, when she sat in front of a room full of journalists for the first time on January 14, 2020, she was a little nervous; However, within a few months, she started looking like a wise veteran. In virtual press conferences, which she attends three times a week, she spends more than an hour interacting with journalists.
Dr. Van Kerkhove is known for translating dense scientific jargon and other important developments related to the COVID-19 pandemic into layman’s terms. Speaking about his press conference experience during an exclusive interview with The Hill, he said,
Our responsibility in these press conferences is to inform the public, and I want to do it in a measured, responsible manner. You may use a certain language while talking to scientists. But speaking at a press conference, I am talking to my grandmother who passed away. He’s not there now, but he would be very proud.”
Maria Van Kerkhove interacting with media personnel
favorite things
- TV Show: So You Think You Can Dance (2005)
Facts/General Knowledge
- In her spare time she likes photography.
- After her marriage, she changed her name to Maria Rosanne DeJoseph Van Kerkhove.
- Dr. Van Kerkhove has many publications and research papers to his name. These publications have been mentioned in various acclaimed magazines across the world.
- Dr. Van Kerkhove’s main research interests include zoonotic, respiratory and emerging/re-emerging viruses, such as avian influenza, MERS-CoV, Ebola, Marburg and Zika.
- She is primarily interested in studying the epidemiology of zoonotic pathogens, investigating the factors associated with transmission between animals and humans.
- He spent his college summers in Mexico, Costa Rica, and Venezuela; Along with ethnobotanist Eloy Rodriguez, he is studying the way indigenous people use plants for medicinal purposes.
- Dr. Van Kerkhove holds an Honorary Lectureship at Imperial College London.
- She is also a key member of CONSISE (Consortium for Standardization of Influenza Seroepidemiology), a global partnership that aims to develop influenza screening protocols and standardize seroepidemiology to inform health policy.
- In 2013, she joined WHO as a technical advisor and member of the MERS-CoV task force.
- To better understand the COVID-19 outbreak, Maria Van Kerkhove spent two weeks in China where she tried to find out how China is using its resources to control the virus.
- When Trump criticized WHO; Maria Van Kerkhove said, after which criticism of WHO from conservatives in Washington is increasing.
I try to stay away from politics because I’m a technical person, but it’s disappointing to see, it’s disappointing to hear.
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn