David Quammen is a science journalist, National Geographic contributor, and Montana author. His dozen books include The Song of the Dodo, Natural Acts, and most recently Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic. In 2013, Spillover was a finalist for seven national and international awards, and it received two.

At this Café Scientifique, Quammen will draw on his research for Spillover to discuss emerging diseases, global pandemics, and the ecology and evolution of scary viruses. His guiding metaphor is that every emerging disease begins as a mystery story, and the scientists who study them (such as Montana Tech’s hantavirus researchers, Rick Douglass and Amy Kuenzi) are the gumshoes who work the world’s most dangerous cases.

 

The Café Scientifique was co-sponsored by Montana INBRE and Montana State University COBRE programs.