Maria Van Kerkhove is an infectious disease epidemiologist working as a scientist and technical lead for MERS-CoV at the World Health Organization (WHO). She specializes in outbreaks of emerging and re-emerging pathogens. Originally from the United States, Dr. Van Kerkhove now lives in Geneva, Switzerland. During the COVID-19 outbreak, she has been a frequent presence at WHO press briefings, providing regular updates on the COVID-19 outbreak.
Wiki/Biography
Maria Van Kerkhove (born DeJoseph) was born on Sunday, February 20, 1977 (43 years old in 2020) in the United States. She is a native of New Hartford, New York. From a young age, she was inspired by the stories of virus hunters and epidemiologists documented in the books of Richard Preston. While attending New Hartford High School in New York, her AP Biology teacher sparked her interest in science and set her on a path to Cornell University, Stanford University, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Speaking about her interest in studying viruses, Dr. Van Kerkhove said,
I love studying viruses and pathogens and how they evolve with humans. I enjoy the detective work that surrounds this topic.”
Maria Van Kerkhove received her bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from Cornell University in 1999. In 2000, Maria Van Kerkhove received her master’s degree in epidemiology from Stanford University School of Medicine. In 2009, Maria Van Kerkhove pursued a doctorate in infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. During her doctorate, she wrote a thesis on avian influenza in Cambodia.
appearance
Height (approximate): 5′ 4″
Hair Color: Medium Ash Blonde
Eye color: Hazel
Family and Race
Maria Van Kerkhove comes from a white American family.
Parents and siblings
Maria Van Kerkhove was born in 1917 to Mary Van Kerkhove, a 1918 Indiana native. Her parents were from Cedar Lake, Hanover and Center Township, Lake County, Indiana, USA. She has a twin sister, Alisa.
Relationships, husbands 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
She has two sons, one of whom is named Cole.
Profession
During college, Dr. Van Kerkhove spent her summers studying how indigenous peoples in Mexico, Costa Rica, and Venezuela used plants for medicinal purposes. She then worked for a consulting firm in New York for five years, learning how to synthesize as much information as possible to assess risk. Her doctoral dissertation on avian influenza took her to Cambodia to study H5N1 influenza. There, Dr. Van Kerkhove investigated live animal markets and mapped how the virus spread in communities. After the 2009 H1N1 global outbreak, Dr. Van Kerkhove joined the WHO influenza team in April 2009, working closely with academic modelers, analysts, and public health experts.
From left to right: Michael Ryan, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Professor Didier Houssin and Maria van Kerkhove
From March 2009 to January 2015, she was a research fellow at Imperial College London, working at the Medical Research Council Centre for Outbreak Analysis and Modelling. In January 2015, she joined the Institut Pasteur’s Centre for Global Health as Head of the Outbreak Investigations Working Group, where she conducted field research on respiratory viruses and emerging/re-emerging viruses such as Ebola and Marburg. While at the Institut Pasteur, a global health organization network based in Paris, Dr. Van Kerkhove established rapid response and investigation teams aimed at detecting new outbreaks around the world.
Maria Van Kerkhove (second from left) attended the 2017 Pasteur Institute OMI Epidemiology Symposium
In 2017, she officially joined WHO and served as technical lead for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in the High Threat Pathogens Department of the WHO Health Emergency Program.
Maria Van Kerkhove appointed WHO technical lead
Speaking about his career working with high-threat pathogens, Dr. Van Kerkhove said,
My lifelong research theme has been viruses and emerging pathogens and how we study their spread from animals to humans and how we can stop it.”
Frequent visitor to the World Health Organization
Since Maria Van Kerkhove officially moved to WHO in 2017, her responsibilities have expanded to include a range of feared zoonotic diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans; caused by high-threat pathogens such as SARS, Zika, Chikungunya, plague and smallpox. During the global lockdown due to the COVID-19 outbreak, she has been a frequent presence at WHO press conferences, providing regular updates on the COVID-19 outbreak.
Maria Van Kerkhove attends WHO press conference
According to Dr. Van Kerkhove, she was a little nervous when she first sat in front of a room full of reporters on January 14, 2020; however, a few months later, she looked like a savvy veteran. During her three virtual press conferences per week, she spent more than an hour interacting with reporters.
Dr. Van Kerkhove is known for translating esoteric scientific terms and other major developments related to the COVID-19 pandemic into plain language. In an exclusive interview with The Hill, she spoke about her experience at the press conference, saying:
“Our responsibility when we do a press conference is to inform the public, and I want to do that in a measured, responsible way. When you’re talking to a scientist, you can use certain language. But at a press conference, I’m talking to my deceased grandmother. She’s no longer alive, but she would be very proud.”
Maria Van Kerkhove interacts with media personnel
Favorite things
- TV show: So You Think You Can Dance (2005)
Facts/Trivia
- In her spare time, she enjoys photography.
- After her marriage, she changed her name to Maria Rosanne DeJoseph Van Kerkhove.
- Dr. Van Kerkhove is the author of several publications and research papers. These publications have been mentioned in several renowned journals worldwide.
- Dr. Van Kerkhove’s main research interests include zoonotic viruses, respiratory viruses, and emerging/re-emerging viruses such as avian influenza, MERS-CoV, Ebola, Marburg, and Zika.
- Her main interests are investigating factors associated with transmission between animals and humans and studying the epidemiology of zoonotic pathogens.
- During college, she spent summers in Mexico, Costa Rica, and Venezuela, working with ethnobotanist Eloy Rodriguez to study how local people used plants for medicinal purposes.
- Dr. Van Kerkhove is an Honorary Lecturer at Imperial College London.
- She is also a leading member of the Consortium for Standardization of Influenza Seroepidemiology (CONSISE), a global partnership to develop influenza survey protocols and standardize seroepidemiology to inform health policy.
- In 2013, she joined WHO as a technical advisor and member of the MERS-CoV working group.
- To better understand the COVID-19 pandemic, Maria Van Kerkhove spent two weeks in China, trying to understand how the country used its resources to control the virus.
- As Trump criticized the WHO, the organization came under increasing attack from conservatives in Washington, Maria Van Kerkhove said.
I try to stay out of politics because I’m a tech person, but it’s still disappointing to see things like this, it’s still disappointing to hear things like this.”
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education