W. Ian Lipkin, mD

John Snow Professor of Epidemiology, Professor of Neurology and Pathology
Mailman School of Public Health and College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University

Phone: 212.342.9033
Fax: 212.342.9044
Email: wil2001@columbia.edu

W. Ian Lipkin, M.D. is the Director of the Center for Infection and Immunity, and Professor of Epidemiology, Neurology and Pathology in the Mailman School of Public Health and College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University. A physician-scientist, Lipkin is internationally recognized for his work with West Nile virus and SARS, as well as advancing pathogen discovery techniques by developing a staged strategy using techniques pioneered in his lab. These molecular biological methods, including MassTag-PCR, the GreeneChip diagnostic, and High Throughput Sequencing, are a major step towards identifying and studying new viral pathogens that emerge locally throughout the globe. A major node in a global network of investigators working to address the challenges of pathogen surveillance and discovery, Dr. Lipkin has trained over 30 internationally based scientists in these state-of-the art diagnostic techniques.

Lipkin is the Director of the Northeast Biodefense Center, the Regional Center of Excellence in Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases comprising 28 private and public academic and public health institutions in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Within this consortium, his research focuses on pathogen discovery, using unexplained hemorrhagic fever, febrile illness, encephalitis, and meningoencephalitis as targets. He is the Principal Investigator of the Autism Birth Cohort, a unique international program that investigates the epidemiology and basis of neurodevelopmental disorders through analyses of a prospective birth cohort of 100,000 children and their parents. Lipkin also directs the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Diagnostics in Zoonotic and Emerging Infectious Diseases. In 1989, Lipkin was the first to identify a microbe (Bornavirus) using purely molecular tools. In 1999, Lipkin led the team that identified the West Nile virus in brains of encephalitis victims in New York State. In April of 2003, he sequenced a portion of the SARS virus directly from lung tissue, established a sensitive assay for infection, and hand carried 10,000 test kits to Beijing at the height of the outbreak. He became ill shortly after returning to the US and was quarantined. As the first foreign consultant to gain the confidence of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Chinese Academy of Science he was named Special Advisor to China for Research and International Cooperation in Infectious Diseases was instrumental in promoting disclosure and outside collaborations in infectious disease research and public health management. He is Honorary Director of the Beijing Infectious Disease Center, Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Institut Pasteur de Shanghai and serves on boards of the Australian Biosecurity Cooperative Research Centre for Emerging Infectious Disease, the Guangzhou Institute for Biomedicine and Health, the Consortium for Conservation Medicine, Tetragenetics, and 454 Life Sciences Corporation.

Service activities

• Director, Center for Infection and Immunity
• Principal Investigator and Scientific Director, Northeast Biodefense Center
• Principal Investigator, Autism Birth Cohort
• Director, WHO Collaborating Centre for Diagnostics in Zoonotic and Emerging Infectious Diseases