The nature of research on emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases is inherently interdisciplinary, as it involves a wide array of apparently disparate academic areas including evolutionary biology, ecology, climatology, genomics, social medicine/anthropology and epidemiology. To address the issues of educational barriers to interdisciplinary research in the field of infectious disease, this project would develop an interdisciplinary curriculum in the transmission dynamics of emerging infectious disease that will integrate concepts from a number of existing disciplines in which strong training programs already exist at Harvard University. This endeavor meshes with the institution's stated goals of developing a new interdisciplinary concentration in infectious disease epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, and developing a training and research program in global health with a strong emphasis on undergraduate education. ? ? The specific aims of this proposed project are to develop and implement a core course in transmission dynamics of emerging infectious diseases that introduces students to fundamental paradigms from multiple disciplines relevant to emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, develop and implement case-based seminars that focus on interdisciplinary aspects of emerging infectious disease for use in short courses and integration into existing curricula, and develop, implement and evaluate a novel interdisciplinary seminar in emerging infectious disease designed to train """"""""research teams of the future"""""""" through practical experience of working in small interdisciplinary groups. ? ? Through collaborations with educational consultants and leaders in scientific pedagogy and research, under the guidance of an advisory body consisting of major actors in undergraduate and postgraduate education at Harvard, the proposed project would develop educational materials and programs to introduce some of these paradigms to undergraduate and graduate students who have the potential to become future leaders in research in emerging infectious diseases. ? ?
