Yale Dean, Infectious Disease Epidemiologist, Poised to Lead CT Academy of Science & Engineering

Sten H. Vermund, MD, PhD, a pediatrician and infectious disease epidemiologist focused on diseases of low and middle income countries and health disparities in the U.S., has been elected Vice President/President Elect of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering (CASE).

Vermund is the Anna M.R. Lauder Professor of Public Health, Dean of the Yale School of Public Health and Professor of Pediatrics, Yale School of Medicine.  Dean Vermund will serve as Vice President beginning July 1, 2022, as President July 1, 2024, and Immediate Past President July 1, 2026, completing his six-year term June 30, 2028.

“As a member, I am honored to continue working, now as an officer, with such a distinguished and dedicated group of scientists and engineers from the state’s academic, industrial, and public sector communities,” said Dr. Vermund. “A goal is for the Academy to be as useful as possible to its membership, our STEM students, and to the people and government of the state of Connecticut. CASE is a rare resource, almost unique across U.S. states and territories.”

The Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering was chartered by the General Assembly in 1976 to provide expert guidance on science and technology to the people and to the state of Connecticut, and to promote the application of science and technology to human welfare and economic well-being.

CASE President Christine Caragianis Broadbridge shared her congratulations on behalf of the membership, noting that, “Dean Vermund’s leadership will ensure the Academy continues well into the future the celebration of our state’s rich and diverse science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medical talent, and our commitment to informing about and promoting science and engineering for the benefit of the state.”

Dr. Vermund has served as Dean of the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH) since 2017; his tenure ends in mid-2022.

“Dean Vermund has had an outsized impact on the Yale School of Public Health, overseeing dramatic growth by every important school metric, from enrollment to faculty to funding to research productivity and impact,” epidemiology professor Luke Davis wrote in an email to the Yale Daily News last October when it was announced that Vermund would return to teaching in 2022 after serving five years as Dean. “Most importantly, Sten has been a powerful and authentic voice for science, social justice and ethical leadership during the most important public health crisis of our time.”

“Under Dean Vermund’s leadership, the faculty, research portfolio, and educational programs of Yale School of Public Health have grown,” said Nancy Brown, the Jean and David W. Wallace Dean of the Yale School of Medicine.

Following his human biology undergraduate studies at Stanford University, Dr. Vermund received his M.D. from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and his pediatrics training at Columbia’s Babies Hospital. He then completed a master’s degree at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, a diploma from the Royal Institute of Public Health and Hygiene, a Mellon Foundation fellowship in clinical epidemiology at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, and M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees in epidemiology from Columbia University. His research has focused on health care access, adolescent reproductive health, and prevention of HIV transmission, both mother-to-child and among adolescents/adults.

Dr. Vermund is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and a Fellow of the AAAS. He has been recognized with the NIAID/NIH/PHS/DHHS Meritorious Service Award, the DHHS Public Health Service Superior Service Award, the Richardson Award for Perinatal and Pediatric Health Care Research, the Velji Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence in Global Health, the Rosenfield Alumni Award for Excellence in Public Health from Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health, and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Award from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, among others.

He serves on multiple editorial boards including the Journal of the International AIDS Society, Current HIV/AIDS Reports, Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, PLOS ONE, Transactions of The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, and the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

For more information about the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, go to www.ctcase.org.