J. GLENN MORRIS JR.

PROFESSOR, EMERGING PATHOGENS INSTITUTE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA, GAINESVILLE

As a child, Morris witnessed the seventh cholera pandemic sweep through Bangkok where his parents were missionaries. The disease and its insidious spread spurred his eventual career in tropical medicine, leading him to work at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and then as chairman of the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at the University of Maryland. Morris helped create the Emerging Pathogens Institute at the University of Florida and became its founding director in 2007. Under his guidance, the interdisciplinary research hub spun a web of campus-wide projects and collaborated with investigators in Africa, Asia, Europe, and South and Central America. The institute now boasts more than 250 faculty members across 13 UF colleges who study diseases of people, plants and animals in over 50 countries. Morris stepped down in 2024 after 17 years of leadership, though he continues researching infectious diseases as a professor.