Nahid Bhadelia Joins Pardee School Faculty
On May 17, 2021, Boston University announced that Dr. Nahid Bhadelia will head the newly established Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases (CEID) and be an associate director at BU’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL). Through a joint appointment, Bhadelia will also be joining the faculty of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies.
Bhadelia received her bachelor’s degree from Tufts University as well as a master’s degree in international affairs from the Fletcher School at Tufts. Her thesis, which was written alongside Pardee School Dean Adil Najam during his tenure at Tufts, explored how HIV/AIDS impacted the economic productivity in many sub-Saharan African countries.
As CEID director, Bhadelia hopes to capitalize on BU’s multidisciplinary approach, teaming with faculty from the College of Engineering, the Center for Antiracist Research, the College of Communication, the School of Law, the Pardee School, the School of Public Health, NEIDL, the Questrom School of Business, and possibly others. Those who become affiliated faculty with CEID, she says, would get resources to accelerate their work and apply for grants. Given the scope of the CEID, the center will likely work with a number of Pardee School faculty and centers, including the Global Development Policy (GDP) Center and the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future.
“I am honored to join the Pardee school faculty under the leadership of my long-time mentor Dean Najam,” said Bhadelia. “Issues of governance, geopolitics, and economics are as salient today in the fight against emerging infections as they were when Dean Najam served as my master’s thesis mentor on health security and HIV epidemic nearly 20 years ago.”
“I am thrilled to welcome Nahid Bhadelia to the Pardee School faculty,” said Adil Najam. “Having worked with Nahid for a very long time in many different capacities, I have seen her dedication and scholarly expertise firsthand. I’m confident she will lead the CEID to a high level of prestige and make an enormous impact on Boston University and the Pardee School.”
Dr. Bhadelia is a board-certified infectious diseases physician and an internationally recognized leader in highly communicable and emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) with clinical, field, academic, and policy experience in pandemic preparedness. In addition to her role at CEID, she is the associate director of the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL), a state-of-the-art maximum containment research facility at BU. Learn more about Bhadelia on her faculty profile.