David Blazes

Dr. Blazes joined the Surveillance and Epidemiology program at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation after serving as a physician epidemiologist in the Navy. In his 21 year Navy career, he served as Director of Infectious Diseases Research at Bethesda Naval Hospital, a Department Head on the USNS COMFORT, and Director of the Emerging Infections Department at the Naval Medical Research Unit Six in Peru. Upon his return to Washington, DC, he directed the Department of Defense’s global disease surveillance efforts and served as the chief advisor to the Navy Surgeon General on Infectious Diseases. At the foundation, Dr. Blazes is the relationship manager for the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), and manages a portfolio of grants around burden of disease modeling, geospatial mapping, and next generation genetic sequencing of pathogens with epidemic potential. Dr. Blazes graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and did his medical training at Johns Hopkins University.

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