Rate My Professor Robert Breiman

Robert Breiman is a Distinguished Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand and serves as Senior Scientific Advisor and former Founding and Interim Director of the Infectious Diseases and Oncology Research Institute (IDORI) at the university. He holds appointments as Professor of Global Health, Environmental Health, and Infectious Diseases at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health. Breiman earned a BA in 1975 and an MD in 1979 from the University of Arizona. He completed his internship, residency, and chief residency in internal medicine at the UCLA San Fernando Valley Medical Program from 1979 to 1983, followed by an infectious diseases fellowship at UCLA from 1984 to 1987.

Breiman joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1987, serving in roles including Epidemic Intelligence Service officer, Chief of the Respiratory Diseases Epidemiology Section, and Director of the United States National Vaccine Program Office. He directed the Health Systems and Infectious Diseases Division at icddr,b in Bangladesh from 2000 to 2004 and led CDC programs in Kenya from 2004 to 2013. At Emory since 2013, he directed the Emory Global Health Institute until 2019 and has led major initiatives including the Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) network. His research focuses on the epidemiology, prevention, and control of infectious diseases, including emerging pathogens, vaccine-preventable diseases, and surveillance systems in low- and middle-income countries. He was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Medicine in 2017 and is a Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.