Leadership in Immunology Changes Hands at HSPH

Dyann Wirth will be the new chair of the HSPH Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, starting on July 1. She will be taking over from Myron Essex, who is stepping down 27 years after becoming the first chair of the department.

Wirth, HSPH professor of immunology and infectious diseases, is an expert in tropical disease and molecular microbiology. She has directed the Harvard Malaria Initiative at HSPH and has provided leadership for the School’s Division of Biological Sciences for the past decade. In addition, she led the recent University planning efforts in global infectious diseases along with colleagues from the Broad Institute, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and HMS and its affiliated hospitals. She has also been involved in the ongoing science-planning efforts at the University.

As an expert in molecular microbiology, Wirth has developed many of the molecular genetic tools used in the investigation of malaria and leishmania parasites, focusing on the mechanisms of drug resistance. Her group was the first to discover multidrug-resistance mechanisms in these organisms.

Essex, the John Laporte Given professor of infectious diseases at HSPH, will retain a position at the School, becoming the Lasker professor of immunology and infectious diseases.

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