Dr. Jonathan Epstein is the Vice President for Science and Outreach at EcoHealth Alliance, a science-based NGO in New York City. A veterinarian and epidemiologist, his research focuses on the ecology of zoonotic viruses that impact animals and people, particularly those associated with bats, such as Nipah virus, Ebola, and emerging coronaviruses (SARS, MERS, and SARS-CoV-2). In 2004, Dr. Epstein was part of the team that discovered that bats were the reservoir for SARS CoV in China and in 2012 he and colleagues first identified MERS CoV in bats and camels in Saudi Arabia. Dr. Epstein has served as a technical consultant for the World Health Organization, the OIE, FAO, the National Academy of Medicine’s Forum on Microbial Threats and the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of Natural History, where he co-created the exhibit Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World. He holds adjunct appointments at Tufts University, Columbia University, and Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. Dr. Epstein has published his research in leading journals including Science, Nature, PNAS, and Cell, and his work has been extensively featured in the news and other media, including the NY Times, CNN, the PBS documentary Spillover: Zika, Ebola & Beyond, NPR and 60 minutes. For more information, visit ecohealthalliance.org.
