Associate Professor
Tulane University, Louisiana, United States
Dawn Wesson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease in the Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Director of the Arthropod Containment BSL-3 facility, Director of the Training Program in Vector-Borne Diseases, and Chair of the Chikungunya and Zika Task Forces at Tulane University. Her background is in medical entomology and vector biology and she has served as principal investigator on many research projects studying vector-borne pathogens (particularly Zika, dengue, and West Nile viruses and Chagas disease). Her research interests include arbovirus transmission ecology, Chagas disease ecoepidemiology, host-pathogen co-evolution, novel vector control strategies and tools, and human pregnancy outcomes of vector-borne pathogen infection. Over the past 30 years, she has worked closely with public health officials locally, regionally, and nationally to promote preparedness for vector-borne disease outbreaks. She has mentored over 225 students (BSPH, MSPH, MS, and PhD), post-doctoral, and junior faculty researchers. During this time, she successfully directed a 5-year CDC Fellowship Training Program in Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, resulting in Ph.D. trainees who currently lead vector control and vector-focused academic research units in the US and abroad. With funding from the NIH and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, she directed a multi-unit project to develop and implement a lethal ovitrap for Aedes mosquito control and dengue prevention, starting with basic laboratory studies and eventually moving to a successful large-scale field trial in Peru showing a successful reduction in symptomatic dengue infections. Ongoing research projects involve analysis of mosquito feeding and arbovirus transmission dynamics, and continued refinement of Aedes oviposition attractants for arbovirus control.
Disclosure information not submitted.
Wednesday, March 5, 2025
2:35 PM – 2:45 PM AST