Nathan Wolfe

Nathan Daniel Wolfe (born 24 August 1970) is an American virologist. He was the founder (in 2007) and director of Global Viral^[1] and the Lorry I. Lokey Visiting Professor in Human Biology at Stanford University.

Nathan D. Wolfe
Wolfe in 2011
Born	(1970-08-24) August 24, 1970 (age 54) Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Alma mater	Stanford, Harvard
Scientific career
Fields	Virology
Institutions	Stanford, UCLA

Career

Wolfe spent over eight years conducting biomedical research in both sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. He is also the founder of Metabiota, which offers both governmental and corporate services for biological threat evaluation and management. He serves on the editorial board of EcoHealth and Scientific American and is a member of DARPA's Defense Science Research Council. His laboratory was among the first to discover and describe the Simian foamy virus.^[2]

In 2008, he warned that the world was not ready for a pandemic.^[3]

In 2011, his book The Viral Storm: The Dawn of a New Pandemic Age^[4] was short-listed for the Winton Prize.^[5]

As reported in a Wired feature in 2020, Wolfe worked with the German insurance firm Munich Re to offer major corporate leaders pandemic policies, which were not purchased; a stark reality during the ensuing COVID-19 pandemic.^[6]

Awards

Wolfe has been awarded more than $40 million in funding from a diverse array of sources including the U.S. Department of Defense, Google.org, the National Institutes of Health, the Skoll Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Geographic Society.^[7]

• Fulbright fellowship recipient (1997)
• National Geographic Emerging Explorer (2004)^[2]
• NIH Director's Pioneer Award (2005)
• Popular Science: "Brilliant 10" (2006)
• Rolling Stone: "Top 100 Agents of Change" (2009)
• World Economic Forum's Young Global Leaders (2010)

Personal life

Wolfe is married to the playwright Lauren Gunderson and has 2 sons. As part of his work, he has lived in Cameroon, Malaysia and Uganda.^[5]