Office of University Communications 

Harvard Fellow to discuss infectious disease and national security

SPRINGFIELD — Jessica Hartman, a doctoral candidate in epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, will present “Epidemiology 101: How we know what we know about public health,” a discussion of infectious disease and the public’s perception of it, at 4 p.m. Nov. 3 in the Plaster Student Union Theater.

“Jessica brings to Missouri State University expertise in unique areas of public health and epidemiology that we can all learn from,” said Dr. Tamera Jahnke, College of Natural and Applied Sciences dean.

Hartman, a native of Springfield, is a Department of Homeland Security Fellow. Her research focuses on the surveillance of infectious disease outbreaks and mathematical modeling of infectious diseases. She earned a bachelor’s degree in ecological systems and global change and a master’s in public health and its relationship to the environment, both from Stanford University. She has also studied at the School for Field Studies Center for Sustainable Development in Costa Rica.

Hartman was employed as a research scientist/project manager at the New York Academy of Medicine, where she developed techniques for real-time early warning of West Nile Virus activity and participated in the development of software programs for the early detection of a bioterrorism event or infectious disease outbreak.

The biology seminar is funded by the Public Affairs Grant Program and is free and open to the public. Hartman will also speak at Expanding Your Horizons, a science conference for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade girls, Nov. 4. Participants can pre-register for the conference prior to Oct. 26 at www.cnas.missouristate.edu/eyh/Registration%20form.asp.

For more information, contact Jahnke at (417) 836-5249.