Ali Khan, dean of the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Public Health, will discuss coronavirus (COVID-19) during a 10 a.m. April 21 Omaha Science Café series.
To continue social distancing this Science Café will be offered via Facebook Live which can be viewed online.
Dr. Khan’s professional career has focused on health security, global health and emerging infectious diseases. He completed a 23-year career as a senior director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which he joined as a disease detective, and where he led and responded to numerous high-profile domestic and international public health emergencies. Khan also is a former assistant surgeon general with the U.S. Public Health Service.
Khan was one of the main architects of the CDC’s national health security program and continues this work at UNMC, which has been nationally designated to prepare the American health care system to respond to outbreaks of high-hazard pathogens. He also continues to actively support global outbreak responses, such as the response for the West Africa Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone and the Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladesh as a member of World Health Organization Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network.
As dean of the UNMC College of Public Health, his focus is on health system and community-based health transformations. His vision is for the college to play an integral role in creating the next generation of public health guardians and devising innovative solutions and new interventions to address public health challenges.
Khan received his medical degree from the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn and has a Master of Public Health from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health. He completed his pediatrics and internal medicine training at the University of Michigan. He has authored numerous papers and publications and has consulted extensively for multiple U.S. organizations, ministries of health, and the World Health Organization, where he serves on the steering committee for GOARN.
Khan is the author of The Next Pandemic: On the Front Lines Against Humankind’s Gravest Dangers.
Science Cafés involve a face-to-face conversation with a scientist about current science topics. They are open to everyone 21 and older and take place in casual settings like pubs and coffeehouses. Each meeting is organized around an interesting topic of conversation. A scientist gives a brief presentation followed by a Q-and-A period.
