Biosecurity Expert Michael Osterholm to speak at MSUM March 23

Michael Osterholm

Author of Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs

Michael Osterholm, an internationally recognized expert in infectious disease epidemiology and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, will present a free, public talk on “Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs,” Thursday, March 23 at 7 p.m. in MSUM’s Langseth Hall room 104.

Osterholm is co-author with Mark Olshaker of the book of the same title, “Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs,” to be released March 14, 2017.

Global outbreaks of Ebola, MERS, yellow fever and Zika have demonstrated how infectious diseases have the power to disrupt daily life, overwhelm public and private resources and bring trade and transportation to a halt.

According to book release information, “Deadliest Enemy” draws on the latest medical science, case studies, policy research and epidemiological lessons to explore “the resources and programs we need to develop if we are to keep ourselves safe from infectious disease. The authors show how we could wake up to a reality in which many antibiotics no longer cure, bioterror is a certainty, and the threat of a disastrous influenza pandemic looms ever larger. Only by understanding the challenges we face can we prevent the unthinkable from becoming the inevitable.”

Osterholm is a national leader detailing the growing concern of the use of biological agents as catastrophic weapons targeting civilian populations. After 9/11, he served as Special Advisor to Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson on issues related to bioterrorism and public health preparedness.

Osterholm holds the title of Regents Professor at the University of Minnesota and served on the Center for Disease Control’s National Center for Infectious Diseases Board of Scientific Counselors from 1992 to 1997. He served for 24 years in various roles at the Minnesota Department of Health, the last 15 as state epidemiologist and chief of the Acute Disease Epidemiology Section.

Osterholm will be available for book signings after his talk.

This talk is made possible by support from the Judith A. Strong Endowment.