UF appoints founding chair of environmental and global health department

The University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions has appointed Gregory C. Gray, M.D., M.P.H., founding chair of the college's new department of environmental and global health.

Gray comes to UF from the University of Iowa, where he established and directed the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases.

"We are thrilled to have an internationally renowned researcher like Dr. Gray as chair of our new environmental and global health department," said Michael G. Perri, Ph.D., dean of the College of Public Health and Health Professions. "Dr. Gray's expertise in emerging infectious diseases will be a major asset toward advancing our research and teaching efforts in global and environmental health."

Gray's research interests include the epidemiology of animal-to-human and human-to-animal disease transmission, often in rural geographical areas. He leads research projects in Cambodia, Mongolia, Nigeria, Romania and Thailand and has frequently trained international professionals in emerging infectious disease research.

At UF, Gray will direct the newly established department of environmental and global health, where faculty members educate public health students and conduct research in areas such as toxicology, chemical and exposure risk assessment, air pollution, veterinary public health, water biology and molecular biology. Gray plans to establish a Ph.D. program in environmental and global health, and will work closely with the UF Emerging Pathogens Institute to develop a virology research program.

"We're very excited about bringing Dr. Gray on board to head a virology arm of the Emerging Pathogens Institute," said institute Director J. Glenn Morris, M.D., M.P.H. "His international research surveying zoonotic influenza encompasses the type of research EPI fosters because it crosses geographic borders as well as academic fields such as public health, virology and agricultural sciences."

Gray has published more than 150 manuscripts in the peer-reviewed literature. He currently serves on the board of the International Society of Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses, is an associate editor for the journal Infection and Public Health and is on the editorial board for the Journal of Clinical Virology.

In 2009, Gray received Mongolia's highest honor for a non-citizen, the Peace Medal, for his research collaborations in communicable diseases.

"Dr. Gray is an accomplished scholar who brings a high level of experience in infectious disease research to the University of Florida," said David S. Guzick, M.D., Ph.D., senior vice president for health affairs at UF's Health Science Center and president of the UF&Shands Health System. "In an era of increasing globalization and threat of zoonotic diseases, such as swine flu and avian flu, Dr. Gray's research and leadership contributions will be vital to UF's efforts to prevent and control infectious disease outbreaks."