Donald Burke

Donald Burke is the Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Health Science and Policy and Dean Emeritus of the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health. He served as the inaugural Jonas Salk Chair in Global Health, Director of the Center for Vaccine Research, Associate Vice Chancellor for Global Health, and faculty member in Epidemiology. Burke earned a BA in Chemistry from Western Reserve University in 1967 (magna cum laude, honors in biology, Phi Beta Kappa) and an MD from Harvard Medical School in 1971. He completed residency training in internal medicine at Harvard-affiliated Boston City Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, and a research fellowship in infectious diseases at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Burke's career includes 23 years at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research directing vaccine and diagnostic research on dengue, Japanese encephalitis, hepatitis, influenza, HIV, and emerging infections; he lived six years in Thailand and worked in Cameroon, India, China, and South Africa. At Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, he was Professor of International Health, Director of the Center for Immunization Research, and received the Golden Apple Award for best teacher. At Pittsburgh from 2006 to 2019 as Dean, he led the NIH Models of Infectious Diseases Agent Study Center of Excellence for computational modeling, the Gates Foundation Vaccine Modeling Initiative, and Project Tycho. His research specializes in infectious disease prevention, vaccines, epidemic modeling, and U.S. drug overdose epidemiology; he authored over 300 articles with top 1% worldwide citations in infectious diseases and first warned in 1997 of coronaviruses as a human health threat. Awards include the John Snow Award (American Public Health Association, 2018), Langmuir Lectureship (American Epidemiological Society), Thomas Francis Jr. Medal, Porter Prize in Public Health, and election to the National Academy of Medicine. Past-President of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, he advised WHO, White House OSTP, NIH, FDA, and CDC. Retired, he advises on research, health nonprofits, and writes on infectious disease history. Key publications: Jalal H, Burke DS. Dynamics of drug overdose deaths in the United States during COVID-19. International Journal of Drug Policy (2026, in press); Marques ETA, Burke DS. Safety and immunogenicity of a virus-like particle Chikungunya virus vaccine. Lancet 405:1314-1315 (2025); Burke DS, Schleunes A. A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Pandemic: The 1977 "Russian Flu". Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 67:386-405 (2024).

Professional Email: donburke@pitt.edu