Three experts from across the country will visit New Mexico State University to share their research at the annual Symposium on Global Health Issues. The conference, which is free and open to the public, begins at 1:30 p.m. Friday, July 19, in Room 111, of O'Donnell Hall. A question and answer period will follow each presentation, and coffee and light refreshments will be served.
"As is clear from the recent worldwide spread of diseases like swine flu and West Nile virus, the health of the global community is highly interconnected," said Kathryn Hanley, associate professor of biology in the College of Arts and Sciences. "Thus, it is important to study the factors that shape global health and the strategies that have the greatest impact on improving global health."
Gonzalo Vazquez-Prokopec, an assistant professor of environmental studies at Emory University, will give the first talk at 1:30 p.m. In his talk, "Bugs on the Move: Linking Human Mobility to Infectious Disease Dynamics," Vazquez-Prokopec will discuss how human movement and human mobility networks contribute to the spread of disease.
At 2:30 p.m., Lynne Messer, an assistant professor of community health at Portland State University, will present "The Well-Being of Orphaned and Abandoned Children - A Global Health Opportunity." In this talk, Messer will discuss the issues surrounding institution-living orphans and abandoned children.
In the final talk scheduled for 3:45 p.m., Peter Wright, professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine, will summarize efforts to eradicate the scourge of poliovirus from the world. His talk is titled, "Polio to Be or Not to Be: a Story of Global Eradication."
Campus visitors to the event may obtain a daylong parking pass free of charge at https://ict-iisweb.nmsu.edu/auxadmin/ParkingForms/ePermit.aspx.
The symposium is sponsored by NMSU's Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement (RISE) program, and supported by the National Institute for Health's National Institute of General Medical Sciences. The NIH NIGMS aims to support research that increases understanding of life processes and lays the foundation for advances in disease diagnosis, treatment and prevention. NMSU RISE aims to diversify the ranks of research leaders by increasing the number of underrepresented minority students who achieve a doctoral degree in a biomedical and/or biobehavioral discipline.
For more information about the event contact Hanley at khanley@nmsu.edu.