Ronald Blanton

Dr. Ronald Blanton serves as the Chair of Tropical Medicine and holds the William Henderson Chair in the Prevention of Tropical Diseases at Tulane University's Weatherhead School of Public Health. With over four decades of academic experience, he previously spent 40 years at Case Western Reserve University as a professor of international health in the Center for Global Health and Diseases and an adjunct professor in Population Health and Quantitative Sciences.

Dr. Blanton earned his BA in English and Spanish Literature from Harvard University, followed by his MD and MS in Genetic Epidemiology from Case Western Reserve University. His academic journey continued with a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Molecular Biology, a Fellowship in Geographic Medicine, and residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Illinois.

His research uniquely integrates basic laboratory science with field epidemiology to uncover epidemiologic relationships, with a focus on schistosomiasis, dengue, and hepatitis C. He has identified human genetic determinants of diseases using microsatellite and SNP markers and discovered new microsatellite markers for the dengue vector Aedes aegypti and the parasite Schistosoma mansoni. With 30 years of research experience in Brazil, plus work in the United States, Kenya, and Egypt, his fieldwork bridges molecular biology with practical public health applications.

Dr. Blanton's recent publications reveal an evolution from fundamental genetic epidemiology toward innovative diagnostic approaches, including AI-based diagnosis of skin-related neglected tropical diseases and thermography for remote diagnosis of Buruli ulcer. His scholarly work spans population structure of helminthic infections, molecular epidemiology of eukaryotes, and the changing profile of schistosomiasis in urbanizing landscapes.

• 2010 Fulbright Scholar, Federal University of Bahia/Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Brazil
• 2014 Special Visiting Professor, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq-Brazil)

As leader of the Water-borne Disease Research Collaborative, Dr. Blanton aims to place population genetics at the service of public health by tracing patterns of pathogen and vector distribution, analyzing current dynamics, and projecting future directions to improve disease control measures in resource-limited settings worldwide.