Nathan Daniel Wolfe (born 24 August 1970) is an American

virologist Virology is the scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host cells for reproduction, the ...

. He was the founder (in 2007) and director of Global Viral and the Lorry I. Lokey Visiting Professor in Human Biology at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

Career

Wolfe spent over eight years conducting biomedical research in both

sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

and Southeast Asia. He is also the founder of

Metabiota Metabiota is a San Francisco startup that compiles data from around the world to predict disease outbreaks. The company is a partner with USAID's PREDICT and PREVENT programs. In the early months of the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, Metabiota and BlueDo ...

, which offers both governmental and corporate services for biological threat evaluation and management. He serves on the editorial board of ''

EcoHealth Health ecology (also known as eco-health) is an emerging field that studies the impact of ecosystems on human health. It examines alterations in the biological, physical, social, and economic environments to understand how these changes affect ...

'' and ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150 Nobel Pri ...

'' and is a member of

DARPA The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adva ...

's Defense Science Research Council. His laboratory was among the first to discover and describe the

Simian foamy virus ''Simian foamy virus'' (SFV), historically Human foamy virus (HFV), is a species of the genus '' Spumavirus'' that belongs to the family of ''Retroviridae''. It has been identified in a wide variety of primates, including prosimians, New World an ...

. In 2008, he warned that the world was not ready for a pandemic. In 2011, his book ''The Viral Storm: The Dawn of a New Pandemic Age'' was short-listed for the Winton Prize. As reported in a ''Wired'' feature in 2020, Wolfe worked with the German insurance firm

Munich Re Munich Re Group or Munich Reinsurance Company () is a German Multinational corporation, multinational insurance company based in Munich, Germany. It is the world's largest reinsurance, reinsurer. ERGO Insurance Group, ERGO, a subsidiary of Munich ...

to offer major corporate leaders pandemic policies, which were not purchased; a stark reality during the ensuing

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Awards

Wolfe has been awarded more than $40 million in funding from a diverse array of sources including the

U.S. Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, t ...

Google.org Google.org, founded in October 2005, is the charitable arm of Google, a multinational technology company. The organization has committed roughly US$100 million in investments and grants to nonprofits annually. The organization is noted for severa ...

, the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...

, the

Skoll Foundation The Skoll Foundation is a private foundation based in Palo Alto, California, Palo Alto, California. The foundation makes grants and investments intended to reduce global poverty. Billionaire entrepreneur Jeffrey Skoll created the foundation in 19 ...

, the

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation The Gates Foundation is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was launched in 2000 and is reported to be the third largest charitable foundation in the world, holding $ ...

and the

National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, natural sc ...

. * Fulbright fellowship recipient (1997) *

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

Emerging Explorer (2004) * NIH Director's Pioneer Award (2005) * ''

Popular Science Popular science (also called pop-science or popsci) is an interpretation of science intended for a general audience. While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is more broad ranging. It may be written ...

'': "Brilliant 10" (2006) * ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'': "Top 100 Agents of Change" (2009) * World Economic Forum's Young Global Leaders (2010)

Personal life

Wolfe is married to the playwright

Lauren Gunderson Lauren Gunderson (born February 5, 1982) is an American playwright, screenwriter, and short story author, born in Atlanta. She lives in San Francisco, where she teaches playwriting. Gunderson was recognized by ''American Theatre'' magazine as A ...

and has 2 sons. As part of his work, he has lived in Cameroon, Malaysia and Uganda.

References

External links

Global Viral Forecasting Initiative webpage

in ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Wolfe, Nathan 1970 births Living people American public health doctors American virologists Harvard Medical School alumni Stanford University alumni Scientists from Detroit 21st-century American scientists Stanford University Department of Biology faculty