Kumo Lartevi

I am one of four boys of Ghanaian descent, raised in the Maryland area. Since an early age, I’ve had a strong interest in science. I remember when, under the watchful eye of my high school science teacher, my classmates and I dissected a cat. I was fascinated by this experience - then I knew that science was the path for me. The theoretical science background provided by my coursework and the bridging of theory to practical application, afforded by my undergraduate research experiences contributed greatly to my academic growth. I then spent a year working as a laboratory technician for a biotechnology company, which allowed me to learn about the industrial application of science. I went on to do my graduate work at James Madison University where I had the opportunity to teach a Microbiology lab and work on other interesting projects.

I am currently an Emerging Infectious Disease Fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. Joining a laboratory whose recent achievements include a major contribution to the World Health Organization’s mandated Polio Eradication Initiative and the involvement in the characterization of the SARS genome was quite exciting. I have found the time spent in the Enterovirus and Molecular Virology Groups to be stimulating and educational. I came into the Emerging Infectious Diseases fellowship program with hopes of being captivated by the state-of-art instrumentation and techniques. I am now discovering something more fascinating than the tools necessary to perform quality laboratory science, and that is the interactions with the people you learn from!