Joseph Cook

When scientists and public health agencies need to identify and address viral outbreaks such as COVID-19, they turn to biological collections within natural history museums to help identify the pathogen and wild host species.

At the UNM Museum of Southwestern Biology, Professor Joseph Cook works alongside students, staff and other faculty to maintain and grow one of the world’s largest repositories of mammal specimens and their associated parasites and pathogens—which has provided vital data and samples to researchers regarding outbreaks such as Ebola and Hantaviruses. 

Collections such as these contain data from hundreds of thousands of samples from species across the world. Professor Cook is working to create a digital infrastructure for museum collections that is globally accessible by scientists, public health institutions, wildlife managers and others. Collaborating with organizations such as the National Academy of Sciences and the CDC, he’s urgently working to enhance our ability to curtail epidemics before they even begin.

Go to news.unm.edu to learn more.