Michael Osterholm

Michael Osterholm

Michael T. Osterholm is an expert on bioterrorism and public health preparedness and is the author of the New York Times best-seller, Living Terrors: What America Needs to Know to Survive the Coming Bioterrorist Catastrophe. He is currently director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP)

Career

Between 1975-1999 Osterholm worked at the Minnesota Department of Health. From 1986 he was the Department's state epidemiologist and chief of the Acute Disease Epidemiology Section. After leaving the Minnesota Department of Health he joined the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), where he currently edits Business Source and directs the Center of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance.

From 2001 through to early 2005 he was a Special Advisor to Tommy G. Thompson - head of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. He was also appointed to the Department's Advisory Council on Public Health Preparedness. On 1 April 2002, he was appointed by Thompson to be his representative on the interim management team to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He held this position until 3 July that year when he was replaced by Julie Gerberding.

In June 2005 Dr. Osterholm was appointed by Michael Leavitt, the new Secretary of the Department of Health & Human Services, to the newly established National Science Advisory Board on Biosecurity.