March 4, 2008

For most people, the mosquitoes that plague the Gulf Coast are an unpleasant reality -- but for Tulane University infectious disease epidemiologist Ivo  M. Foppa, they are a star attraction. Foppa recently joined the faculty at Tulane as an assistant professor in the department of epidemiology at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.

“There is a lot going on in New Orleans and at Tulane, so I am excited to be here,” said Foppa, whose research interests include infectious diseases carried by mosquitoes and ticks. Prior to Tulane, the Harvard School of Public Health graduate held the position of assistant professor in the department of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, S.C. He also tracked the path of West Nile virus through that state.

Foppa, a native of Switzerland, first ventured to New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast in the months after Hurricane Katrina while funded to assess the disaster’s impact on West Nile virus transmission. He spent a day in New Orleans, never thinking at that time that he would return. Yet he says the opportunity for collaboration with researchers and infectious disease experts at Tulane proved to be a compelling match with his own research interests.

In addition to work with medical entomologist Dawn Wesson and her team in the department of tropical medicine, Foppa anticipates expanding his interest in disease modeling with colleagues at Tulane’s Center for Computational Science.