FMD People

Dr. Thurmond is professor emeritus in veterinary epidemiology, who is serving as Co-Director of the Center for Animal Disease Modeling and Surveillance, (CADMS), and Co-Director of the FMD Laboratory. His interests during the past 37 years of professional service have included clinical medicine and clinical epidemiology, primarily in diseases of livestock, new methodologies for diagnostic epidemio ... Read Morelogy, and modeling and development of disease surveillance systems, particularly for foreign animal diseases. Read Less

Dr. Perez is a veterinarian and epidemiologist, originally from Argentina, who has worked on diagnosis, spatial analysis, modeling, and surveillance of food animal diseases for over 10 years. In 2008 he became an Associate Director of CADMS and Co-Director of the FMD Laboratory. During the last 5 years he has published >30 papers on epidemiological modeling and surveillance of infectious animal diseases.

Dr. Willeberg is a senior veterinary global health specialist at CADMS since 2007, when he retired as the chief veterinary officer for Denmark. Until 1999 he was professor in veterinary epidemiology at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Copenhagen. Since 1972 has been active in many international bodies concerned with animal health and he has published more than 100 scientific papers mainly on epidemiological topics.

Dr. Ascher is the former State of California public health virus laboratory director, and in 2001, he was detailed to the Department of Health and Human Services to develop the biodefense laboratory network. He led the subgroup of the Infectious Disease Informatics Working group that developed the BioPortal prototype system for West Nile virus infection and botulism. He is currently retired and ... Read More consults part-time with the Center and serves a Senior Medical Advisor to the California Emergency Management Agency. He also serves as the Associate Director for Emergency Response in the NIH-sponsored Pacific Southwest Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases. Read Less

Ms. Ferreira is an analyst for CADMS. Her responsibilities include, data management and analysis, web-based searches for recent FMD News reports, and research support for BioPortal development. She also is responsible for grant proposal submissions, budgets, personnel issues, and project planning and organization.

Dr. Carrasco is a veterinarian from Chile. He is a data manager in charge of developing, updating, and geocoding databases, including those for the FMD and RVF News services.

Dr. Alkhamis is an MPVM candidate and PhD student, originally from Kuwait. He is involved in research in FMD and avian influenza, as part of his planned PhD thesis, and contributes to development of the BioPortal.

Mr. Whedbee is a programmer in charge of the technical development of the BioPortal. He is the webmaster for the FMD News and for the BioPortal. He also provides general computer technical support for the laboratory.

Mr. Williams is a programmer involved in writing code for the BioPortal, including designing user interfaces, linkages with other systems, and operation of visualizing tools and models.

Ms. Nez is an undergraduate at UC Davis working towards her degree in Animal Biology, originally from Arizona. She works at the FMD Laboratory as a student assistant in charge of monitoring web based media for recent FMD News reports and updating the news items in the electronic database.

Mr. Wang is an undergraduate student majoring in electrical engineering with a minor in computer science. He is a programmer contributing to web programming and database management.