In memoriam, Wilbert van Panhuis, MD, PhD 1978-2026.
We mourn the loss of Wilbert van Panhuis, MD, PhD, principal investigator of Project Tycho and inaugural director of the MIDAS Coordination Center. Wilbert completed his medical training at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in 2004, followed by his PhD in Global Disease Epidemiology and Control from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2009. He joined the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health as an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology in 2009.
At the University of Pittsburgh, Wilbert became a leader in the application of data science principles to epidemiological research and infectious disease modeling. He led the development of the Project Tycho data repository from its inception in 2013, an ambitious effort that digitized and harmonized more than 100 years of public health data on dozens of conditions worldwide, and used the extensive US dataset to demonstrate that childhood vaccination prevented 100 million cases of serious childhood diseases (NEJM).
Wilbert’s team later completed research on the integration and analysis of dengue surveillance data from eight Southeast Asia countries, resulting in the discovery of an association between high temperatures and dengue dynamics across all countries (PNAS). Wilbert also received funding from the NIH Big Data to Knowledge program to work on improving methods for population health informatics, in particular representing global health data in a machine-interpretable format, towards compliance with FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) guidelines for data management, leading to the release of Project Tycho 2.0 in 2018 (JAMIA). Project Tycho’s use of modern data and metadata standards provides a model for infectious disease data sharing.
In 2019, Wilbert took the helm of the MIDAS Coordination Center, bringing his vision of rigorous data practices and usability to a nationwide community of infectious disease modeling researchers. This work was thrust into a prominent role with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, as MIDAS grew quickly from under 200 members in 2019 to over 400 by the end of 2020. Through the MIDAS network, Wilbert worked to acquire new datasets, encourage modeling collaborations, and bring a vision of applying reproducible infectious disease models to public health officials and other policy-makers.
Wilbert left MIDAS and the University of Pittsburgh in 2021 to lead the Office of Data Science and Emerging Technologies (ODSET) at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), where he worked to extend the vision of applying data science to infectious disease research.
Wilbert’s clear scientific vision, energy, enthusiasm, and passion for collaborative research provide a foundation that continues to inspire our work. Our condolences go to his family and friends. He will be missed.
