Gary Whittaker studied Biochemistry and completed a PhD in Microbiology at the University of Leeds (UK) before moving to the US to do post-doctoral studies in cell biology at Yale University Medical School. Gary came to Cornell in 1996, where he has established a research program in virology, focusing on influenza and coronaviruses, including SARS, MERS and feline coronavirus. His research focuses on virus entry and how genomic mutations in circulating viruses lead to the emergence of viruses with altered tropism. Research in the Whittaker lab also aims to develop novel vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics tests.

As an expert in coronaviruses, Gary has been asked to provide insight into the COVID-19 pandemic from a number of sources. A selection of articles he’s been quoted in can be found below:

• The Washington Post, 3/23/20: The coronavirus isn’t alive. That’s why it’s so hard to kill
• The New York Times, 3/19/20: Surfaces? Sneezes? Sex? How the Coronavirus Can and Cannot Spread
• Cornell Chronicle, 3/19/20: COVID-19 working group gears up
• Cornell Chronicle, 3/12/20: Cornell experts view coronavirus via multidisciplinary lenses
• The Washington Post, 3/11/20: Coronavirus forecasts are grim: ‘It’s going to get worse’
• Nature, 3/6/20: Why does the coronavirus spread so easily between people?
• Vet Candy, 3/6/20: Cornell University coronavirus expert, Dr. Gary Whittaker tells all about COVID-19
• Cornell Daily Sun, 3/3/20: Cornellians Returning From Countries Heavily Impacted by Coronavirus to Be Placed Under Quarantine
• ASPPH Friday Letter, 2/18/20: Seeking to Understand the Behavior of 2019-Novel Coronavirus
• Cornell Chronicle, 2/13/20: Panel discusses global uncertainties surrounding coronavirus
• The Washington Post, 2/7/20: Coronavirus came from bats or possibly pangolins amid ‘acceleration’ of new zoonotic infections