Eric Houpt is the Jack Gwaltney Professor and Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health at the University of Virginia. He and his group lead studies on the burden of infectious diseases, drug resistance, and emerging infections worldwide, with a focus on molecular diagnostics for diarrheal diseases. His group has developed the TaqMan Array Card as a molecular diagnostic tool for pathogens, now considered the gold standard, and deployed this technology with colleagues in over 20 countries for research, surveillance, and outbreak detection. This work uncovered an enormous burden of Shigella as well as rotavirus, redirecting global vaccine prioritization efforts and the development of new management approaches.

Houpt was awarded the Bailey Ashford Medal by the American Society of Tropical Medicine and the Oswald Award by the Infectious Diseases Society of America and was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the American Association of Physicians.