W. Ian Lipkin, MD
Professor of Epidemiology, Columbia University
Dr. Ian Lipkin is internationally recognized for his contributions to global public health by developing innovative methods for infectious diseases diagnosis, surveillance, and discovery. He is the John Snow Professor of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, where he also directs the Center for Solutions for ME/CFS, the Center for Research in Diagnostics and Discovery, and the Center of Infection and Immunity. Dr. Lipkin was the first to use subtractive cloning in microbial discovery and next-generation sequencing for investigating outbreaks. He also developed gene capture technologies including VirCapSeq-VERT and BacCapSeq as well as multiplexed serological assays to detect vector-borne diseases. These advances have been critical in replacing culture-dependent methods of global health management by creating new criteria for disease causation and de-linking spurious associations between putative agents and diseases, such as the MMR vaccine and autism. Dr. Lipkin has also been at the forefront of outbreak response to many of the world’s recent outbreaks, including West Nile Virus in NYC (1999), SARS in China (2003), MERS in Saudi Arabia (2012-16), Zika in the US (2016), encephalitis in India (2017), and COVID-19 (2020). He promotes public health awareness via print and broadcast media and served as the scientific advisor for the Soderbergh film “Contagion.” His prestigious honors include Pew Scholar (Biomedical Sciences), Walter Reed Distinguished Lecturer, the Drexel Prize in Translational Medicine, and the Technology Cooperation Award of the People’s Republic of China. He earned his MD at Rush.
Expertise: Epidemiology, public health, virology and infectious diseases, diagnostics, data public policy