Stephen Thomas | Chief, Division Of Infectious Diseases
New York Upstate Medical University

Stephen J. Thomas, MD is a Professor of Medicine, Professor of Microbiology & Immunology, and Infectious Diseases physician-scientist from the State University of New York (SUNY), Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, NY. He is the Chief, Division of Infectious Diseases and Director, Institute for Global Health and Translational Science (IGHTS). Prior to joining SUNY Upstate Dr. Thomas spent twenty years in the U.S. Army Medical Corps serving at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) and completing his career as the Chief Operating Officer of the institute. Dr. Thomas is a virologist and vaccinologist who spent more than 5 years of his early career living and working in Thailand and Southeast Asia. He played a key leadership role advising senior DoD leadership during the West Africa Ebola outbreak and leading his team’s planning and execution of Ebola vaccine trials. He was instrumental in developing and implementing his institution’s first in human MERS-CoV vaccine trial and Zika vaccine development efforts. At SUNY, Dr. Thomas leads the Infectious Diseases Division responsible for providing in- and out-patient infectious disease consultation. As the IGHTS Director, he provides strategic and technical leadership to multiple initiatives in the US and abroad encompassing education, research, and clinical service opportunities. Current research activities include work on dengue human infection models, development of vaccines against opioid use disorders, Latin America and Asia-based field based studies exploring transmission and pathogenesis of arboviral diseases, and early and advanced phase testing of a number of vaccines and therapeutics against tropical diseases. Dr. Thomas earned his Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Biomedical Ethics from Brown University, his Medical Degree from the Albany Medical College, and completed his internship and residency in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases fellowship at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.