Albert I. Ko, MD

Albert Ko, MD, is an infectious diseases specialist and epidemiologist whose research focuses on infectious rapid diseases that have emerged in urban slum populations as a consequence of rapid urbanization and social inequity. These diseases include Zika, dengue, bacterial meningitis, leptospirosis, and COVID-19. 

During the pandemic, he served as co-chair of Governor Lamont’s Reopen Connecticut Advisory Group and he continues to advise state officials on disease prevention and control plans. Dr. Ko is also a collaborating researcher at the Brazilian Ministry of Health’s Oswaldo Cruz Foundation. He has worked in Brazil for more than 30 years; his projects are understanding the role that social marginalization, urban ecology, and climate play in the emergence of infectious diseases in urban slum communities and implementing community-based solutions. 

Dr. Ko is the program director of the Fogarty/NIH Global Health Equity Scholars Program, which provides mentored global health research training fellowship in 24 sites in low- and middle-income countries. He is also a member of the World Health Organization’s research and development task force for Zika and the R&D Blueprint Working Group.

He is the Raj and Indra Nooyi Professor of Public Health and professor of epidemiology (microbial diseases) and medicine (infectious diseases) at Yale School of Medicine.