Public Health Grand Rounds Lecture Series Presents Dr. Harvey Rubin, Director, UPenn Institute for Strategic Threat Analysis and Response, giving the lecture "Towards a Global Governance Structure for Infectious Diseases: Theory into Practice."

 

Dr. Rubin is the Director of the Institute for Strategic Threat Analysis and Response ISTAR, (www.istarpenn.org) which he founded in 2002. The mission of ISTAR is global--addressing strategies and responses to intentional as well as unintentional threats. Some of the areas under investigation include: the dynamics of urban preparedness; international treaties and compacts for infectious diseases, protection of the physical and information infrastructures; risk assessment and public communication in times of crises; emerging infectious diseases and agents of bioterrorism; health care delivery and public health systems under crisis situations; curriculum development to teach the response to all hazards; and economic models of the consequences of pandemics and other disasters.

ISTAR holds Special Consultative Status at the United Nations through its affiliate Friends of ISTAR. He is the founder of Energize the Chain (www.energizethechain.org)- a non-profit organization that extends the vaccine cold chain to remote parts of the globe by powering vaccine refrigeration systems using energy available at mobile cell towers in these remote regions.