Charles ​Whittaker, PhD

Biography

Dr. Charles Whittaker is an Assistant Professor of Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology at Berkeley Public Health where his work focuses on the dynamics, detectability and control of pathogens with pandemic potential. His work uses state-of-the-art analytical approaches spanning viral phylodynamics, epidemiological modelling and machine learning to uncover new insights into how pathogens spread through populations and to enhance preparedness and response strategies for public health emergencies. Central to this work is a focus on equity, addressing how the inequitable distribution of resources hinders effective outbreak response, and developing solutions to ensure everyone is protected from pandemic threats.

Current research topics include projects on novel pathogen surveillance, the drivers of zoonotic spillover, and next-generation medical countermeasures such as broad-spectrum vaccines. This work is carried out in collaboration with scientists and public health professionals from Angola, Brazil, Colombia, Denmark, Ethiopia, Panama, Singapore, the UK, and the USA, and organizations including CEPI and the WHO. He is a founding member of the Machine Learning and Global Health Network and also a Field Epidemiologist—previously with the WHO (including deployment to the 2018–2020 North Kivu Ebola outbreak), and more recently with the UK’s Public Health Rapid Support Team.

Research Interests

• Pandemic preparedness
• Epidemiological modelling
• Genomic epidemiology and phylodynamics
• Public health surveillance
• Machine learning

Education

• PhD – Infectious Disease Epidemiology
  Imperial College London, 2022
• MSc – Infectious Disease Epidemiology
  Imperial College London, 2017
• BA – Biological Natural Sciences
  University of Cambridge, 2015

Publications

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