As a 2012 course instructor, Dr Philip Welkhoff worked in the epidemiological disease modeling team at Intellectual Ventures’ Global Good Fund which develops computer simulations of malaria, polio, and other disease transmission dynamics to assist public health professionals and other scientists in planning eradication of different diseases. These simulations have resolution of individuals but cover large geographic areas and are focused on studying all phases of a global eradication campaign. Beyond modeling disease eradication, his research interests include technologies for improved public health in the developing world and other global development issues, such as vaccine delivery, developing world nutrition and agriculture, and improved sanitation.

Dr Welkhoff earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Applied and Computational Mathematics from Princeton University where his work focused on computational neuroscience and biophysics‐motivated models of decision making. While at Princeton, he began work on malaria and mathematical models of disease transmission, and he had malaria frequently while growing up at a humanitarian hospital on the north coast of Haiti. Dr Welkhoff received a Special Achievement Award by a Hertz Fellow in 2009 for his work on malaria modeling. He is a Board member of the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation and serves as an interviewer for its graduate fellowship program. He also served as an External Reviewer for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and as a pro bono external advisor for the foundation’s programs in Global Health and Global Development. In 2018, he was named director for Malaria at the BMGF.

Selected Links

Bill & Melina Gates Foundation