Center for Tropical Research

The latest UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine’s Global Health Program (GHP) newsletter features Professor Tom Smith and his ongoing research on the connection between climate change and coronaviruses. The full article is presented below. Global Health Program (GHP) Spotlight A UCLA biologist researches the connection between climate change and coronaviruses This month we are...

Nick Russo is one of nine UCLA graduate students awarded a 2020 Fulbright-Hays study abroad fellowship. Russo’s research in Cameroon investigates the movements of hornbills (large, seed-dispersing birds) in response to human activity, seasonal fruit availability and 3D vegetation structure. He is an ecology and evolutionary biology major with the Center for Tropical Research.

The Nature Insight podcast features biodiversity expert Peter Daszak, a senior research fellow at the Center for Tropical Research who is a disease ecologist working to predict and prevent outbreaks of zoonotic diseases like COVID-19. “Every single pandemic has a link to wildlife…These will happen unless we change our relationship with nature.”

The July 2020 issue of the UCLA Magazine features the many partnerships developing between UCLA and Africa. Highlighted efforts include those by Tom Smith and Kevin Njabo with UCLA’s Center for Tropical Research at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and their work through the Congo Basin Institute.

World War Zero, a coalition addressing climate change, has featured an op-ed by UCLA Professor Tom Smith, co-director of the Congo Basin Institute. “COVID-19 has shown the world the horrors of a pandemic. Climate change is an accelerator for pandemics. It’s time to wake up and take action — our future depends on it.”