Rashid A. Chotani

Dr. Chotani is a Principal Analyst V in the Systems Engineering Division at ANSER Inc. He utilizes his expertise in medicine, public health, infectious disease epidemiology, vaccine/therapeutic sciences, microbiology and bioinformatics to guide science and technology initiatives to develop novel solutions to current and future problems related to CBRN issues. He analyzes and defines highly complex problems and architectures, develops approaches, investigates and synthesizes fully integrated solutions applicable to the client’s needs, and plans implementation.

Dr. Chotani has over fifteen years of experience as a leader, primary investigator, professor, program manager, and scientist in academia, government, Department of Defense and private sector. In 1996-97 while at the Maryland Department of Health & Mental Hygiene (DHMH) he developed the HL7 Specifications for Electronic Laboratory-Based Reporting of Public Health Information, which has now become a CDC standard. At the DHMH in recognition of his accomplishments he received the epidemiologist of the year award, the public health award and two commendation letters from the State Epidemiologist and the Secretary of Health. As an international health vaccine science fellow at the Center for Immunization Research he worked under the supervision of Dr. D. A. Henderson to investigate the true case-fatality rate of smallpox in the Native American population. As the first Hospital and Microbiology Epidemiology Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Hospital he authored the nosocomial infections chapter in Nelson, Williams, Graham, ed. Infectious Disease Epidemiology: Theory and Practice now in its third edition. In 1999, while a fellow in bioinformatics at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory he developed the first proof of concept for early detection of bioterrorism agents that initiated the US syndromic surveillance program and developed ESSENCE II. Multiple patents were filed on this work including “Methods and System for Bio-Surveillance Detection and Alerting,” on which he is a co-inventor.

Dr. Chotani served as the Director of the Global Infections Disease Surveillance and Alert System (GIDSAS) at the School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University from 2001 to 2006. During this time he also served as the medical director of several relief teams, including the Canadian Tsunami Relief Team in Indonesia, the Tsunami Relief Team in Sri Lanka and the Earthquake Relief Team in Pakistan. In addition to his significant contributions in the public sphere, Dr. Chotani has held numerous positions in the academic world in the capacity of mentor, researcher, and professor. From 2001 to 2006 he was Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins University in the Department of Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine and the Department of International Health at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Until October 2004, Dr. Chotani served as Assistant Professor at the Center for International Emergency Disaster & Refugee Studies at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health & Medicine. In the capacity of Senior Scientist, he worked in the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University. Additionally at Johns Hopkins, he contributed as a Research Associate at the Division of Disease Control’s Department of International Health from 1999-2001 and at the DoD GEIS (ESSENCE) as the medical epidemiologist from 2000-2001.

He currently serves the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) as a Senior Science Advisor and provides technical and programmatic support to the Chemical Biological Directorate, JSTO, as part of the A&AS Contract with the Agency with emphasis on the Medical Science, Technology and Information Systems Divisions of the Directorate. In 2007, he was an intricate part of the DTRA Director Team Award for CB Medical Division.

Dr. Chotani is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Biometrics and Associate at the Center for Global Health at Johns Hopkins University. He also severs the Office of the Governor as a Member of the Pandemic Influenza Coordinating Committee. He has authored or co-authored over 50 scientific peer-reviewed papers, technical reports, chapter and two books. Dr. Chotani has extensive experience in public speaking. He has presented over 30 scientific papers and has been invited over 70 times to give lectures at national and international conferences and seminars.

Dr. Chotani received his MD from the Eugenio Maria de Hostos School of Medicine in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in 1991, his MPH (1996) and Diploma in Tropical Medicine (2000) from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health.

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