David H. Walker, M.D.

Professor and Chairman, Department of Pathology

Director, WHO Collaborating Center for Tropical Diseases

University of Texas Medical Branch

301 University Boulevard

Galveston, Texas 77555-0609

Tel:  (409) 772-2856 

Fax:  (409) 772-2500

      David H. Walker is Chair of the Department of Pathology and founding Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Tropical Diseases and the Center for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, and Principal Investigator of the Western Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research.  During residency at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (1969-1973), he studied Chagas’ disease at Harvard University and the Gorgas Memorial Laboratory in Panama.  As a Research Medical Officer at the CDC, he focused on arenaviruses, particularly Lassa virus pathogenesis investigations in the biosafety level-4 laboratory. 

      At the University of North Carolina (1975-1987), he established an independent NIH-funded career in rickettsiology and infectious disease pathology as a scientist. 

      His research on rickettsial and ehrlichial molecular microbiology, immunity, pathology, pathogenesis, clinical pathophysiology, epidemiology, and diagnosis has included important contributions to elucidating the protective immune mechanisms against rickettsiae and ehrlichiae, the discovery (Anaplasma phagocytophilum) and characterization (Rickettsia japonica, R. felis) of agents of emerging infectious diseases, description of new diseases (human granulocytotropic anaplasmosis, flea-borne spotted fever), and contributions to the descriptions of the pathology of Lassa fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, boutonneuse fever, and human monocytotropic ehrlichiosis.  His investigation of the 1979 outbreak of anthrax in Sverdlovsk, Russia revealed it to have been inhalational anthrax. His field research projects and training of international scientists have ranged from China, Inner Mongolia, Sicily, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Portugal, Slovenia, and Japan to Cameroon.

      His recent scholarly efforts include Tropical Infectious Diseases:  Principles, Pathogens, & Practice.  Guerrant RL, Walker DH, Weller PF (eds), Elsevier, Philadelphia, PA, 2005 and Pathology of Infectious Diseases: Clinical Cases. Woods GL, Schnadig V, Walker DH, Winn W, Butterworth Heinemann, 1999.