Outbreak Opening Night

Pictured left to right: Lee Hamm, dean of the School of Medicine; Thomas A. LaVeist, dean of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine; Sally Baker (BSPH'09), current MD/PhD candidate at Tulane School of Medicine; Michael Fitts, president of Tulane University; and Robin Forman, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost, at the opening for"Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World." 

On May 1 Tulane University unveiled “Outbreak,” an exhibition in partnership with the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, which has convened global partners like Tulane to raise awareness of the human, animal and environmental factors contributing to infectious disease epidemics. 

The Tulane exhibit showcases the university's contribution to both groundbreaking research and innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing infectious problems. Four schools (Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Social Work, Science and Engineering, and Medicine) as well as Tulane's National Primate Center are reflected in the images and artifacts included in the exhibition. 

Tulane University prides itself on being on the front lines of both research of and defense against these outbreaks, and in fact, it is the foundation upon which the university was built. Located downtown in the Tidewater Building (1440 Canal Street), home of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Outbreak tells the story of Tulane’s important research associated with global epidemics. Tulane’s work on epidemics dates back to its founding as a medical college in 1834, when a small group doctors banded together to work on yellow fever, then plaguing New Orleans.

Sally Baker (left), a 2009 BSPH alumna currently pursuing an MD/PhD with the School of Medicine, initiated the effort to bring Outbreak to Tulane.