Arnold Monto (born March 22, 1933) is an American physician and epidemiologist. At the University of Michigan School of Public Health, Monto is the Thomas Francis, Jr. Collegiate Professor Emeritus of Public Health, professor emeritus of both epidemiology and global public health, and co-director of the Michigan Center for Respiratory Virus Research & Response. His research focuses on the occurrence, prevention, and treatment of viral respiratory infections in industrialized and developing countries' populations.
Education
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Monto graduated from Erasmus Hall High School. He received a B.A. in zoology from Cornell University in 1954 and earned his M.D. from Cornell University Medical College, now Weill Cornell Medicine, in 1958. From 1958 to 1960, he completed his internship and residency in medicine at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. From 1960 to 1962, he was a USPHS Post-Doctoral Fellow in Infectious Diseases at Stanford University Medical Center.
Career
Monto fulfilled his national service commitment in the Virus Diseases Section of the Middle America Research Unit: a part of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. While there, he began his career-long interest in respiratory illnesses; confirming that the same viruses causing illnesses in the temperate zones cause illnesses in the tropics. He was among the first to observe that influenza viruses, in areas where temperatures were stable year-round, mainly occurred in the rainy season. In 1965, Monto was recruited to the University of Michigan School of Public Health by Thomas Francis Jr., chair of and professor in the school's Department of Epidemiology. Monto rose through the academic ranks from research associate to professor. He served as chair of the school's Department of Population Planning and International Health from 1993 to 1996, and as director of the University of Michigan Center for Population Planning. From 2002 to 2004, Monto was director of the University of Michigan Bioterrorism Preparedness Initiative. In 2010, he was named the Thomas Francis Collegiate Professor of Public Health. He is the founder and director of the University of Michigan-Israel Public Health Partnership for collaborative research and education (2014–present) and is co-director of the Michigan Center for Respiratory Virus Research and Response, one of five centers across the country that collects data for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Monto spent periods as a visiting scientist at Northwick Park Hospital Clinical Research Center, Harrow, England; at the World Health Organization, Geneva, working on implications of lower respiratory infections globally; and, at the National Research Council, Washington, D.C. organizing studies of the causes of respiratory infections in low-resourced countries.
He is author of over 350 research papers focusing mainly on the epidemiology and implications of respiratory infections and co-editor of Textbook of Influenza Second Edition.
In a career spanning six decades Monto has been involved in pandemic planning and emergency response to influenza and other respiratory virus outbreaks, including the 1968 Hong Kong influenza pandemic, avian influenza, SARS, MERS, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2015, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention established the annual "Arnold S. Monto Award" in honor of Monto for innovation in epidemiology and vaccinology. "Dr. Monto's work has helped us understand the value of measuring vaccine effectiveness in the communities where vaccines are used and taking that data to help enhance influenza prevention programs", said Joe Bresee, Chief of the Epidemiology and Prevention Branch of CDC's Influenza Division."
In 2020, Monto was selected to chair the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) on COVID-19. The committee of experts will discuss the development, authorization and/or licensure of COVID-19 vaccines and advise the agency on safety and effectiveness.