Donald K. Milton, MD, DrPH, is a Professor of Environmental Health at the University of Maryland School of Public Health, with a secondary appointment in the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Department of Medicine. An internationally recognized expert on the aerobiology of respiratory viruses, Dr. Milton developed the concept of using indoor CO2 to directly measure rebreathed air and airborne infection risk. He was the Principal Investigator of Prometheus@UMD (investigating respiratory virus transmission on the UMD College Park Campus) and the UMD StopCOVID study (investigating SARS-CoV-2 transmission). Current projects include the NIH-funded Evaluating Modes of Influenza Transmission (EMIT-2) study, a 5-year $15 million UMD-UMB collaboration to perform randomized controlled trials that will define the modes and mechanisms of influenza transmission, and the NIH-funded Center for Research on Influenza Pathogenesis and Transmission (CRIPT) Roommate Cohort "GotFluToo" study. 

Dr. Milton graduated from University of Maryland, Baltimore County with a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry in 1976 and obtained his Doctor of Medicine from Johns Hopkins University in 1980.  He went on to obtain his Master of Occupational Health and Doctor of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health in 1985 and 1989, respectively. 

https://sph.umd.edu/people/donald-milton

Dr. Sheldon Tai completed formal veterinary training at National Taiwan University, and earned his PhD in comparative medicine and integrative biology at Michigan State University. He is interested in studying how viruses replicate and transmit, how they interact with host cells, and how viruses cause diseases in humans and animals. Some of his previous works include cloning the entire feline herpesvirus genome as a bacterial artificial chromosome and deriving its complete sequence, elucidating the mechanism of HIV-1 genomic RNA packaging, demonstrating the temporal relationship between expression of Marek's disease virus oncogene Meq and progression of lymphoma in infected chickens, and evaluating the efficacy of novel anti-influenza drug candidates. 

Yi is a registered nurse who received her Bachelor's degree in Nursing from the University of Missouri in St. Louis. She worked as a Research Nurse Coordinator for the Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine prior to coming to Maryland.

Dr. McPhaul’s areas of expertise include Workplace Health and Safety and Occupational Health. She earned her Master’s degree of Public/Occupational Health from Johns Hopkins University and her Ph.D. in Nursing/Occupational Health from UMB. She is a Registered Nurse (Bachelor’s from UVA).  She is the former Chief Consultant for Occupational Health at the Veterans Health Administration and is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Workplace Health & Safety Journal.

Dr. Kristen K. Coleman is an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Health and former Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Emerging Infectious Diseases Programme at Duke-NUS Medical School and the Department of Medicine at NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine in Singapore. Dr. Coleman was a member of the Duke One Health Research team at the Duke Global Health Institute for which she was engaged in research projects in Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, China, and the US. She earned her PhD in Biology (Ecology track) in May 2017 from the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Toledo. Her doctoral research focused on measuring airborne influenza virus in the school environment. Her current research focuses on the environmental detection, epidemiological surveillance and transmission of emerging and zoonotic pathogens, primarily respiratory viruses such as influenza virus, adenovirus, and coronavirus.

Jianyu is a recently graduated PhD student in Epidemiology at the UMD School of Public Health. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Preventive Medicine from Sun Yat-Sen University, China, and received a master’s degree (MPH) in Epidemiology with a graduate certificate in health informatics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. As a research associate in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at the University of Michigan Health System, she was involved in a shoulder registry cohort study and a multi-center 2 by 2 factorial randomized trial. She also assisted in several systematic review projects mainly focusing on patient-reported outcome measures. Her research interests include the transmission and biomarkers of respiratory infectious diseases, as well as epidemiological methods.

Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Chemical Engineering. PhD in Chemistry from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, conducting research on combustion soot nanoparticles, specifically focusing on the mechanism of restructuring and mechanical properties. Postdoc at the Food and Drug Administration, working on projects involving the modification of NIOSH’s Manikin Fit Evaluation Method to match fit testing with human subjects, and a retrospective characterization of pediatric face masks marketed in the United States and their implications for future designs

Cande Vázquez, originally from Argentina, holds a Master of Public Health in Health Equity from the University of Maryland, where she also earned her Bachelor of Science in Public Health Sciences. Currently, Cande works part-time at the PHAB lab and serves as a consultant for the American Public Health Association, contributing her expertise to advancing public health initiatives.

Prior to joining the PHAB Lab, Alycia was a microbiology laboratory technician at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. She is an alumna of Tuskegee University.

William is an alumnus of the University of Manchester, where he received a Bachelor of Biotechnology degree. He was an ORISE-sponsored fellow at the Food and Drug Administration immediately prior to joining the PHAB Lab. He performs sample extractions, PCR, cell culture, and other molecular and cell biology techniques in support of PHAB Lab projects.

Catherine received her bachelor’s in Public Health Science from University of Maryland in December 2023. Since Spring 2023, she has helped in the PHAB Lab in the clinic and virology. She is currently training, supervising, and leading the undergraduates in the CRIPT study.

Julie earned a Bachelors degree in Public Health Science from UMD-SPH in December 2023. She has been working with the PHAB Lab since Spring 2023 on the GUV, EMIT-2, and CRIPT studies. Currently, she is training and supervising undergraduate research assistants in the PHAB Lab clinic.

Dr. Barbara Albert is a central Pennsylvania native who earned a BS in Health and Physical Education and an MD from Pennsylvania State University. She has residency training in Internal Medicine from George Washington University Hospital and completed residency training and a Master's Degree (MPH equivalent) in Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore.

Dr. Albert has provided medical support for numerous studies and programs at the University of Maryland College Park over the past 25 years. She served as the medical advisor for the former Wellness Research Lab in the Department of Kinesiology, and as the Medical Director for the Center for Health Behavior Research, she was a co-investigator in 10 large, multicenter clinical trials of pharmaceutical products to aid in smoking cessation. She has worked with Dr. Milton on several projects studying transmission of acute respiratory infections, including the CDC-funded EMIT study, the CATCH study, and the StopCOVID study examining SARS- CoV-2 transmission.

Dr. Filbert Hong is the senior project manager and data manager (continuing his roles from Prometheus@UMD), assisting in study coordination, REDCap administration, and data systems maintenance. Filbert had left the world of scientific research for a long time but has since come back. For more than ten years he was Director of Artistic Operations for the National Philharmonic (based at the Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda, MD), a $2 million-budget symphony orchestra and chorus. He was orchestra personnel manager, production manager, chorale manager, stage manager, guest artist manager, education coordinator, and music performance librarian. Prior to that, for four years he was executive producer for the Lowell House Opera at Harvard College, New England's oldest continually running opera company. He is a violinist and violist, and choral singer.

Filbert earned his A.B. in Chemistry and Physics at Harvard College, and his Ph.D. in the Harvard University Biophysics program, studying agonist and antagonist interactions with the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor ion channel, using electrophysiology methods (on whole cells and on detached patches), in the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School in the laboratory of Jonathan B. Cohen. He has also done work on the isolation of novel kinesin-related proteins and the photoelectric action of bacteriorhodopsin. 

Isabel earned a Master of Health Administration degree from UMD-SPH in 2020. She received her Bachelor's degree in Biology at the University of Virginia. She has done work in population-based studies of the usage of Lynch syndrome screening for colorectal cancer.

Sulakkhana received her Bachelor's degree in Public Health Science from UMD and her Master of Public Health from UMD-SPH. When she was an undergraduate, she participated in the Prometheus@UMD study as a research assistant. She is currently assisting in project planning and study operations for EMIT-2 and other PHAB Lab projects.