University of Georgia College of Public Health professor Ye Shen has been appointed to the Ernest Corn Professorship of Infectious Disease Epidemiology.
This endowed professorship supports the study of infectious diseases with a specific focus on infectious diseases in marginalized and vulnerable populations. It honors the work of Dr. Ernest Corn, a urologist who practiced in Macon for more than 50 years. The acknowledgment is exciting, said Shen, as it recognizes his past decade of work at UGA.
“An endowed professorship shows appreciation and recognition of what you have done over the past,” said Shen, who serves as department head of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the College of Public Health. “This endowment also provides support to try new research directions.”
Shen’s research has helped inform policies on a spectrum of infectious diseases ranging from COVID-19 and seasonal influenza to schistosomiasis, a parasitic disease caused by flatworms. By better understanding the epidemiology and the transmission dynamics of these diseases, his research is an important step in designing community-based interventions and decreasing infection.
He is also researching how emerging infectious diseases such as COVID-19 and Avian Influenza H7N9 are established and transmitted, and aims to develop analytic methods to understand how these diseases affect under protected populations.
The professorship supports Shen’s continued research, including work with post-doc and graduate students to refine predictive models for hotspot areas of schistosomiasis infections in African countries. These “hotspots” are areas where, despite current intervention practices, infection rates remain persistently high and do not decline to controlled levels.
“We’re going to continue this line to build a better predictive model to inform policymakers to change their intervention strategies by identifying hotspots earlier in the process,” Shen said. “This work is going to benefit many vulnerable populations, like women and adolescents, and those facing socioeconomic disadvantages, which is also an original goal of this endowment.”
The endowment also supports new paths for research without the uncertainty of grant funding. Having that sustainability is crucial for long-term projects, Shen said, as it means he will have more consistent resources for students and research data collection.
“With an endowment, you have a foundation you can rely on to fill potential gaps between grant funding or to transition between grants more smoothly,” Shen said. “It’s so valuable to not have to put a project on hold or pause research due to a limit on resources.”
– By Erica Techo
Published October 4, 2024.
