Celebrate All Scientists: Eric Calvo
The weather is getting cooler and that means mosquito season is coming to an end!
And so, as Liberty Science Center celebrates National Hispanic Heritage Month, we highlight Dr. Eric Calvo, a scientist whose work involves studying mosquitoes and the diseases they carry, including malaria.
Dr. Calvo is Chief of the Molecular Entomology Unit at the National Institutes of Health. In this position, Dr. Calvo helps to keep the public safe by better understanding diseases that come from arthropods like mosquitoes. Specifically, Dr. Calvo studies their saliva; how, exactly, does the rich mixture of proteins in mosquitoes’ saliva permit diseases to spread, and how can we protect ourselves?
Born and raised in Havana, Cuba, Dr. Calvo was always interested in how things worked. He received his B.Sc. in biochemistry from the University of Havana, Cuba, and his Ph.D. from the Institute of Biomedical Sciences in the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
In 2018, he became an Earl Stadtman Investigator and NIH Distinguished Scholar, a position that recognizes creative, independent thinkers eager to take on innovative, high-impact research. Currently, he leads the Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research as a principal investigator. A host that carries and spreads a disease—such as a mosquito—is called a vector. Dr. Calvo’s goal is to find new strategies that reduce or possibly eliminate vector-borne disease transmission.
To learn more about Dr. Calvo’s research, be sure to follow him on Twitter at @EricCalvoLab.
Click here to learn more about National Hispanic Heritage Month.
