Thomas Unnasch, Ph.D.

Distinguished Health Professor at the College of Public Health, University of South Florida

Dr. Unnasch received his AB from Rutgers University and PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard School of Public Health, Dr. Unnasch began his independent career in 1985 as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Geographic Medicine at Case Western Reserve University. In 1989, he became an Associate Professor in the Division of Geographic Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he was promoted to Professor in 1995. He relocated to USF in 2008, as a Professor in Global Health and Molecular Medicine and a State of Florida World Class Scholar. He was named co-Director of the Center for Biological Defense in 2011 and Distinguished USF Health Professor and Chair of the Department of Global Health in 2012. He was named a USF Distinguished University Professor in 2020. Dr. Unnasch has been involved in the effort to eliminate river blindness for much of his career. In 1992, working with the Onchocerciasis Control Programme in West Africa he established the first laboratory that used molecular diagnostics (PCR) for disease surveillance in all of Africa. Dr. Unnasch has served as a member or chair of many scientific advisory boards overseeing the river blindness elimination efforts in Africa and Latin America. His work on river blindness has received support from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Carter Center, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, WHO and the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation. Closer to home, Dr. Unnasch has been involved in the study of the epidemiology of emerging virus infections in Florida and the Southeastern USA, including Zika, West Nile Virus, dengue virus Eastern Equine Encephalitis Virus and Cov2. He is the director of USF’s only high containment laboratory for infectious diseases.  His work on emerging viruses has received support from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Environmental Services. Dr. Unnasch is the author or co-author of 280 peer-reviewed articles, reviews and book chapters.