Michael Osterholm seminar (Aris Series)
University of Minnesota Regents Professor, Michael Osterholm, will deliver a department seminar titled, "Public Health in a Time of Turmoil and Challenge," on Tuesday, December 8th at 1:25 p.m. in room B75 Amundson Hall. This seminar is a part of the Aris Lecture Series.
Biography
Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH, is Regents Professor, McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair in Public Health, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, a professor in the Technological Leadership Institute, College of Science and Engineering, and an adjunct professor in the Medical School, all at the University of Minnesota.
In early 2025, Dr. Osterholm and colleagues founded the Vaccine Integrity Project, a key initiative dedicated to safeguarding vaccine use in the US. He is also author of the new book, The Big One: How We Must Prepare for Future Deadly Pandemics, winner of the 2026 Society of Midland Authors' Award for Adult Nonfiction, a 2025 Booklist Editors' Choice Pic, and a New York Post Best Book of 2025.
In November 2020, Dr. Osterholm was appointed to President-elect Joe Biden's COVID-19 transition advisory board. From June 2018 through May 2019, he served as a Science Envoy for Health Security on behalf of the US Department of State. He is also on the Luther College Board of Regents.
He is the author of two additional, New York Times best-selling, books, In 2000, he authored Living Terrors: What American Needs to Know to Survive the Coming Bioterrorist Catastrophe, laying why the biological attacks (like the 2001 anthrax attack) are a new reality and what we must do to prepare, and his 2017 book, Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs, details the most pressing infectious disease threats of our day (including coronaviruses and pandemics) but lays out a strategy to address them.
In addition, Dr. Osterholm is a member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) and the Council of Foreign Relations. In June 2005 Dr. Osterholm was appointed by Michael Leavitt, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), to the newly established National Science Advisory Board on Biosecurity. In July 2008, he was named to the University of Minnesota Academic Health Center’s Academy of Excellence in Health Research. In October 2008, he was appointed to the World Economic Forum Working Group on Pandemics.
In addition to his role at CIDRAP, Dr. Osterholm has also served as an HHS special advisor and a representative on the interim management team to lead the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention. Previously, Dr. Osterholm served from 1975 to 1999 at the Minnesota Department of Health, the last 15 as state epidemiologist.
He has written more than 420 papers and abstracts, including 21 book chapters and is a frequently invited guest lecturer on the topic of epidemiology of infectious diseases. He serves on the editorial boards of nine journals.
Dr. Osterholm has received numerous honors, including an honorary doctorate from Luther College; the Pump Handle Award, CSTE; the Charles C. Shepard Science Award, CDC; the Harvey W. Wiley Medal, FDA; the Squibb Award, IDSA; Distinguished University Teaching Professor, UMN; and the Wade Hampton Frost Leadership Award, APHA. He also has been the recipient of six major research awards from the NIH and the CDC. Recently, he was named to TIME’s 2026 TIME100 health list of the world’s 100 most influential leaders in health.
The Aris Lecture Series
The Aris Lecture Series began in 1964. The series arose from the scholarship of Rutherford Aris, who was interested in both chemical engineering and paleography. Because of these diverse interests, Professor Aris was concerned by the split between different parts of human knowledge, enforced by the organization of colleges and departments at universities. Because he felt that different disciplines do not talk to each other sufficiently, he hoped that this lecture series would reach a broad audience, and so stimulate more discussion. Learn more at the CEMS website.
