Biography

Francisco Sy, chair of the UNLV School of Public Health's Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, is an expert in epidemiology and infectious diseases.

His research focuses on the transmission of viruses such as Zika and SARS, individualizing patient care, pinpointing depressive symptoms, and improving physical health. Much of his published work centers on HIV prevention in women at public health clinics, the roles diet and physical activity play on blood pressure in Hispanic women, and AIDS prevention.

Sy was a senior program director and AIDS coordinator at the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for 12 years. He also spent four years with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a senior health scientist in the division of HIV/AIDS prevention, where he continued his studies into infectious disease epidemiology by focusing on SARS outbreak investigations and researching health disparities in the LGBT community. Sy has also worked with Asian communities in the U.S. to mitigate the fear and stigma associated with SARS and other infectious diseases.