Global Health Initiative Seeks Campuswide Involvement in Incubator Series

Global health problems extend beyond clinics, vaccine laboratories, and hospitals. Some of the most pressing problems stem from societal, economic and environmental factors as well.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison's growing Global Health Initiative is taking on this multisector challenge by fostering research collaborations that advance sustainable health in Wisconsin and the world.

"The tendency in our research programs is to get hooked on that one problem and dig deeper and deeper and deeper," says Jeremi Suri, E. Gordon Fox Professor of History and co-chair of the initiative. "That separates you from the questions that move people to innovation and really remarkable solutions."

To pry likely contributors away from that singular focus, the Global Health Initiative is organizing an incubator for ideas in the form of a series of evocative forums centered on the United Nations Millennium Development Goals and running through the spring semester.

The first Incubator - set for 4:30 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 31, in The Forum at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery - features influenza expert Yoshihiro Kawaoka and Caitilyn Allen, who studies wilt in tropical plants. Kawaoka and Allen will set the tone for the series by combining diverse perspectives on battling infectious diseases.

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