The biology of emerging infectious diseases is fascinating, and it's important.

The problem of emerging infectious diseases is all around us.

but we always seem to be unprepared for them as if they're a new event each time.

some of the lessons from the COVID pandemic are let's cooperate more, and let's not politicize a problem that we're all facing.

Are you able to be inclusive and find your people?

Yeah.

I'm fascinated by the kind of global agreement that there are certain problems that humanity faces that we should try to get rid of.

one of them is to rid the world of malaria.

I've been interested in insect borne diseases for a very long time, especially mosquito borne diseases, that led me to an interest in this.

And what can we do about the malaria problem Because it creates such a burden on the poorest of the poor I became involved in collaborative work and Kenya, Malawi, settings where, people are poor and public health systems are inadequate to meet really basic needs, things we take for granted.

I've learned that low technology approaches like insecticide treated bed nets, are the best approach, Once you've made certain gains, then you have to have a vision about what you're going to do next, and I think that's where we're stuck particularly in Africa, which is faced with a big problem of food insecurity.

with the unreliability of water and the dependency on rain fed agriculture.

So what do you do to try to address that problem?

You institute irrigation systems on a broad scale.

But then, when you irrigate, you create groundwater, you make more mosquitoes So to reduce the problem of food security, we increase the malaria problem.

We've got this dilemma.

Problems like that attract me very much because there's got to be a way to navigate this towards a solution in the impoverished situation that might even lift people up out of poverty at the same time.

Michigan State is good at looking at these problems from a global perspective and nurturing that perspective in our students.

People could generate their own methane locally and use it like cookstoves in Africa.

Here at Michigan State University, we provide an experience for our students that goes beyond the classroom and it greatly adds value to their education.

And to be part of their growth, that is very motivating for me.

I'm grateful for this award.

I was surprised to get it.

This class of distinguished professors this year, I know these folks pretty well.

And I think that, yeah, that's the right person.

Oh, me too.

So grateful and I'm honored that the university would appreciate me in this way.

and I hope I can live up to this.