Raina Plowright, Principal Investigator

Professor, Department of Public and Ecosystem Health, Cornell Atkinson Scholar, Cornell University; Principal Investigator, Bat OneHealth


“If we understand how novel pathogens are transmitted from one species to another, a process we call spillover, could we predict or even prevent these events from happening in the first place?”

Dr. Plowright is the Rudolf J. and Katharine L. Steffen Professor at Cornell University where she also serves as a Cornell Atkinson Scholar at the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability.

Dr. Plowright received her veterinary degree from the University of Sydney, and her M.S. (epidemiology) and Ph.D. (ecology) from the University of California, Davis.

Her research develops the science of pandemic prevention through transdisciplinary science leadership and translation. She focuses on four areas of investigation: mechanisms of cross-species transmission (commonly known as spillover), how environmental stressors drive spillover events, the dynamics of viral pathogens in reservoir hosts, and the implementation of ecological interventions to mitigate spillover. Her work advances a One Health approach by bridging the best available science in disease dynamics with effective public health practice and meaningful policy. Dr. Plowright is dedicated to fostering excellence in transdisciplinary collaboration to tackle the complex challenges of zoonotic disease emergence. She leads Bat One Health, a research consortium investigating WHO priority pathogens in bats, with field efforts in Australia, Bangladesh, and Ghana. Their work aims to unravel the biological mechanisms underpinning spillover events to inform development of targeted prevention strategies.

Dr. Plowright is the co-chair of the Lancet Commission on Prevention of Viral Spillover and holds roles on several advisory boards, including the National Science Foundation Advisory Committee for Environmental Research and Education, and the US National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine committee for Countering Zoonotic Spillover of High Consequence Pathogens.

She was recently elected to the National Academy of Medicine (2023) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2022) for transdisciplinary leadership in the field of emerging disease biology. She has been an Australian-American Fulbright Fellow, an Australian Centenary Scholar, a DARPA Young Faculty Awardee, the recipient of a WIMU teaching award and the Wiley Research Award, and a David H. Smith Fellow in Conservation Research.

Dr. Plowright has contributed to over 130 peer-reviewed publications and many invited talks including plenaries and keynotes on zoonotic spillover (see below). Her research has been featured in interviews and reports in the popular media, including in the New York Times, Scientific American, The Washington Post, The Economist, Le Monde, National Public Radio, Newsweek, Reuters, ProPublica, and Rolling Stone.

Contact:
Email: raina.plowright@cornell.edu
Twitter: @rainamontana

Publications: see publications page or Google Scholar.

Media: see media page.

Recent keynote or plenary talks, podcasts, and webinars:

  • Keynote: Wildlife Health and Pathology Short Course, Taronga Zoo, Australian Registry of Wildlife Health, Sydney Australia, February 2024.

  • Keynote: Applying One Health Principles to Wildlife Management Symposium, Taronga Zoo, Sydney, Australia, February 2024.

  • Plenary: Epidemics, Bologna, Italy, November 2023.

  • Keynote: Board on Animal Health Science, Conservation, and Research (BAHSCR) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Washington, DC, 2023. 

  • Keynote: International Symposium on Zoonoses Research, Berlin, October 2023.

  • Plenary: Opening Plenary & Carlton M. Herman Cutting Edge speaker, Annual International Conference of the Wildlife Disease Association, Athens, Georgia, USA, August 2023.

  • Discussion Leader: Gordon Research Conference on Microbial Population Biology, session on Origins and evolution of animal epidemics and pandemics; Gordon Conference, New Hampshire, USA, July 2023.

  • Keynote: One Health meeting organized by PREZODE in Montpellier, June 2023.

  • Opening Plenary: Integrative Biology of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IBEID), Institut Pasteur, Paris, France, June 2023.

  • Webinar: How to prevent the next pandemic, e-Cornell, June 2023.

  • Keynote: INGSA-NASEM Public Forum: Southeast Asia’s Zoonotic Threats: Bridging the Gap Between Research and Action. Kuala Lumpa, Malaysia, June 2023.

  • Podcast interview: One World, One Health. https://onehealthtrust.org/news-media/podcasts/, 2023.

  • Keynote: ANRS | Emerging Infectious Diseases, Pasteur Institute, Paris, France, March 2023.

  • Opening Plenary: New York Chapter of The Wildlife Society, Annual meeting, New York, USA, 2023.

  • Keynote Biodiversity Science 30th anniversary, Seminar for biodiversity and health, Duke Kunshan University, China (>900 participants), 2022.

  • Keynote: World One Health Congress, Singapore, 2022.

  • Keynote: Planetary Health Annual meeting, Harvard University, Boston, USA, 2022.

  • Keynote: EU-funded MOOD Drivers of Zoonotic Diseases Emergence, Trento, Italy, 2022.

  • Keynote: U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Asian National Academies, Zoonotic Spillover Meeting, Bangkok Thailand, 2022.

  • Keynote: Infectious Diseases of Bats International Meeting, Fort Collins, CO, USA, 2022.

  • Plenary: One Health European Joint Programme, Orvieto, Italy, 2022.

  • Keynote: PREZODE “PREventing ZOonotic Disease Emergence” France, US, Canada collaboration to reduce risk of zoonotic disease, 2021.

  • Plenary: The National Caucus of Environmental Legislators (>200 State Legislators), 2021.

  • Webinar: by Knowable Magazine: Preventing the Next Pandemic: Exploring the Origins and Spread of Animal Viruses. Conversation with Prof. Jonna Mazet, and A. Prof Raina Plowright, 2020.

  • Plenary: Global Landscapes Forum (World Bank and UN Environment), COVID & Landscape Immunology session organized by the World Bank, 2020.

  • Plenary: Indiana University, Environmental Resilience Institute, fall symposium, 2020.

  • Plenary: Systemics, Biogeography & Evolution International Meeting, 2020.

  • Keynote: Rocky Mountain Virology Conference, Fort Collins, Colorado, 2019.

  • Keynote: International Conference on Diseases in Nature Communicable to Man (INCDNCM), Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, 2019.