Gerald T. Keusch, MD, is Provost for Global Health for the Boston University Medical Campus and Associate Dean for Global Health at the Boston University School of Public Health, and Professor of Medicine and International Health in the Schools of Medicine and Public Health. He has a long standing interest in global health, and his own research has focused on infectious diseases of importance to developing countries, including diarrheal disease and HIV/AIDS. His work has ranged from basic studies of disease pathogenesis to field epidemiological studies, including clinical research on the effects of malnutrition on the immune system and host response. Keusch is the author of over 300 original publications, reviews and book chapters, and the editor of 8 scientific books. He has received numerous honors, including the Squibb, Finland and Bristol awards for research excellence from the Infectious Diseases Society of America. He is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Research, the Association of American Physicians, and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science, where he serves on the Board on Global Health and on the Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability.
Prior to his present appointment, Keusch was Associate Director for International Research at the National Institutes of Health and Director of its Fogarty International Center. Under his leadership, the programs of the Fogarty International Center greatly expanded, focusing on the creation of a global culture of science, capacity building, and harnessing basic and translational science for global health, targeting the major infectious and chronic non-communicable diseases and conditions affecting people in the developing world. He remains strongly committed to building awareness of global health disparities and towards promoting the role of developed countries, such as the United States, to help to build capacity building in developing countries to address and reduce the disparities.