UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor honored for infectious disease research

A professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health has been honored by the Society for Epidemiologic Research (SER) for her work researching infectious disease epidemiology. 

Dr. Anne Rimoin, professor in the UCLA Fielding School’s Department of Epidemiology, received the Roger Detels Distinguished Researcher Award in Infectious Disease Epidemiology, awarded to an outstanding scholar with extraordinary contributions to the research field of infectious disease epidemiology. 

“Epidemiology, at its core, is about patterns over time. It’s not just about numbers - it’s about history. I started as a historian, and I’ve never really stopped being one,” said Rimoin, who holds the Gordon–Levin Endowed Chair in Infectious Diseases and Public Health at UCLA Fielding. “The outbreaks we study today are connected to the ones we didn’t study closely enough decades ago. The data we generate now will either guide the future - or leave it vulnerable.” 

The award is named for Dr. Roger Detels, past president of both the SER and the International Epidemiological Association, and distinguished professor in the UCLA Fielding School’s Department of Epidemiology. Detels nominated Rimoin for the award, and she acknowledged that connection in her remarks at the awards ceremony, held as part of the SER’s annual convention. 

“The SER has always valued rigor, context, and community, and Roger’s work set the bar for what it means to do public health with purpose and persistence,” Rimoin said. “It means a great deal to be recognized in his name.” 

The award was presented June 12 at the Society’s 2025 annual conference in Boston, and recognized the wide range of Rimoin’s work over some 20 years as a scientist, Detels said. 

“As a well-known epidemiologist, Dr. Rimoin has made profound contributions to the study of emerging infectious diseases, particularly in the field of Monkeypox and other zoonotic diseases,” he said. “As someone who has dedicated my career to advancing the field, I see in Professor Anne Rimoin a kindred spirit - an exceptional researcher whose work embodies the very principles this award seeks to honor.” 

Along with her work as a teacher and researcher, Rimoin, a graduate of Middlebury College (BA, ’92) UCLA (MPH, ’97), and Johns Hopkins (PhD, ’03), serves as director of both the UCLA-Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Health Research and Training Program and the UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health. 

“Dr. Rimoin’s influence in global health is unparalleled; she has established and sustained essential research infrastructure that has transformed our ability to monitor and respond to infectious disease threats worldwide,” said Dr. Ron Brookmeyer, dean of the UCLA Fielding School and a distinguished professor of biostatistics. “Under her leadership, the UCLA-DRC program has trained dozens of Congolese scientists in-country, significantly strengthened local research capacity, and fostered the next generation of public health leaders.” 

Rimoin, whose research work and training mission in the DRC is on-going, said the deadly history of infectious disease should not be ignored by medical professionals, policy makers, and the public. 

“It’s the logic of epidemiology - and the cost of forgetting our own lessons. We see this in every underfunded system, every missed signal, every delayed response,” she said. “And those of us who have worked in places where the infrastructure is still lacking - where disease emerges again and again - know that unless we act, we’re destined to repeat the mistakes of the past.”