Colorado State University Professor Named to Research!America’s Paul G. Rogers Society for Global Health Research

Barry Beaty, Colorado State University Distinguished Professor and infectious disease expert, has been selected to join a group of 25 experts in global health research who will advocate for greater U.S. investment in global health research. These experts join 50 of their peers in Research!America’s Paul G. Rogers Society for Global Health Research in a united effort to build a national conversation around the value and importance of U.S.-funded global heath research.

The Rogers Society, named for the Honorable Paul G. Rogers (1921-2008), former Florida Congressman, renowned champion for health research and Research!America chair emeritus, works to increase awareness of and make the case for greater U.S. investment in research to fight diseases that affect the world’s poorest nations disproportionately.

Beaty is professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences’ Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology. His work on diseases spread by insects, such as malaria and dengue fever, West Nile fever and yellow fever, is important for the health, security and quality of life of people around the world.

Beaty’s work also plays a crucial role in boosting the Colorado economy and maintaining America’s overall competitiveness. Beaty and his peers were selected by an advisory council comprised of renowned leaders in science, public policy and communications, including four Nobel Laureates. Together they will meet with their policymakers to make the case for an increased U.S. investment in global health research through the examples of their own research.

Beaty was a faculty member in the Yale Arbovirus Research Unit at Yale University before joining CSU in 1982. He is known internationally for his research and leadership in infectious diseases. Work to control these important diseases has received funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization, the MacArthur Foundation, the Gates Foundation and other agencies.  

Beaty is founder and former director of the university’s Arthropod-borne Infectious Diseases Laboratory, former director of the Rocky Mountain Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases, and former director of the Infectious Disease Supercluster and chief scientific officer of MicroRx, the business arm of the Infectious Disease Supercluster. He is a member of the executive committee of the Innovative Vector Control Consortium, which is devoted to development of new, environmentally safe and sustainable pesticides for control of vectors of diseases and development of new tools and approaches to manage control programs for malaria, dengue and other vector-borne diseases.

Beaty’s activities include managing or participating in a number of grants, committees and collaborative projects for entities such as the Centers for Disease Control, National Institutes of Health, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Health Organization.

His major research interests are in the areas of epidemiology and control of vector-borne and rodent-borne diseases, ranging from basic field epidemiology and surveillance, to clinical experience in developing rapid diagnostic techniques, to studies of vector competence, genetics and biology, to molecular manipulation of virus and vector genomes, to new vector control strategies.  

His studies have established long-term and mutually beneficial collaborations with scientists and public health practitioners in disease endemic countries, and have led to the development of innovative approaches to control dengue and other vector borne diseases, which in disease endemic countries are transmitted principally in the home and indoor environments.  

Vector borne diseases as an epidemiological group are the causes of billions of infections and millions of deaths each year. In poor countries, transmission of diseases like malaria and dengue occur principally in the home. New approaches and products to control the insect vectors of these diseases in indoor environments will benefit billions of people throughout the world.

"We have a new Congress and a new Administration. Now is the time when we can make a difference for global health research. These Ambassadors will be exceptional leaders in advocacy. Their example will serve as an inspiration for every global health researcher," said the Honorable John Edward Porter, chair of the Rogers Society Advisory Council and Research!America board chair. "Paul Rogers’ spirit lives on through the work of each of these Ambassadors. As he often said, without research, there is no hope."

The Society was established in 2006 by Research!America with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Research!America works with the Ambassadors to maximize the effectiveness of their outreach to policy makers, opinion leaders and the media.

Research!America is the nation’s largest not-for-profit public education and advocacy alliance working to make research to improve health a higher national priority. Founded in 1989, it is supported by 500 member organizations, which represent more than 125 million Americans. For more information, visit www.researchamerica.org.

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