‘Inside UVA’: World-Renowned Infectious Disease Expert Is This Week’s Guest

March 9, 2022 By Jane Kelly, jak4g@virginia.edu Jane Kelly, jak4g@virginia.edu

Audio: ‘Inside UVA’ with Dr. Bill Petri, Infectious Disease Specialist(17:47)

President Ryan and Dr. Petri discuss the pandemic, research, teaching and more.

Transcript

His surname may bring petri dishes to mind, but Dr. Bill Petri comes by his medical expert chops honestly.

“My father was a chemical engineer … so I always knew I wanted to be a scientist,” he tells University of Virginia President Jim Ryan in the latest edition of Ryan’s podcast, “Inside UVA.” “And then there was a wonderful program at [the National Institutes of Health] that put high school students into the labs at NIH. And my older sister did that, then I did it, my younger sister did that. And all three of us now are physician-scientists.”

Ryan launched his podcast last semester as a way to explain how a large public University operates. He has hosted an array of UVA students, faculty, staff and alumni, from celebrated poet and professor Rita Dove to Lauren Kim, the student chair of the University Judiciary Committee.

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In addition to being an expert in infectious diseases, Dr. Bill Petri also plays a mean trombone and runs marathons.

Readers will likely recognize Petri’s name. A chaired professor of infectious diseases and international health in the School of Medicine and vice chair for research in UVA’s Department of Medicine, he has been in the headlines since March 2020, when the coronavirus spread around the world. Reporters have repeatedly sought out his expertise in infectious diseases.

To learn more about how Petri’s work pivoted when COVID-19 hit – plus his marathon skills and mastery of the trombone – tune in to the latest episode of “Inside UVA,” which can be streamed on most podcast apps, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts.

Media Contact

Jane Kelly

University News Senior Associate Office of University Communications