Raina Plowright is a Cornell Atkinson Scholar and a Professor in the Department of Public and Ecosystem Health at the College of Veterinary Medicine. Her research program develops the science of pandemic prevention through transdisciplinary leadership, innovation, and translation. Her work advances a One Health approach by bridging the best available science in disease dynamics with effective public health practice and meaningful policy. Plowright’s holistic and multi-level approach is best exemplified by the Bat One Health Research Group, for which she serves as Principle Investigator. Her systematic and interdisciplinary approach focuses on five areas of inquiry: Transmission of pathogens between species, Links between land-use change and pathogen spillover, Dynamics and drivers of viral pathogens in reservoir host populations, Prevention of epidemics, and Implementation of science for the protection of ecosystem and human health.

Plowright was recently named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS). The award cites Plowright’s “distinguished contributions to the field of emerging disease biology, particularly her interdisciplinary leadership into the mechanisms that drive spillover from bats to humans.”