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Connect. Collaborate. Contribute.™
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John Fonner
Eric Olson Sherri Greenberg Zoom 6:00pm Log In Zoom 6:15- 7:30pm Presentation, Q&A 
Thanks to Austin Public Library for their partnership.
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The novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has had a sudden and tremendous global impact. The resulting disease, COVID-19, and the rapid spread (epidemic) has had a profound effect individuals and families, schools and education, businesses and operations, government policies, and society in general. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared it a pandemic in early March, and the Center for Disease Control, and governments worldwide at all scales have declared state of emergency/disaster and instituted policies to attempt to control the pandemic and reduce hospitalization and fatalities (already number over 10,000). Social distancing, quarantines, and lockdowns play key roles in reducing exposure and slowing the spread, but detecting cases, predicting the spread, determine treatments, and developing vaccines are the realm of medical science—aided by powerful technologies.
Join us for this timely event as our experts explain viruses and epidemics in general, the SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19 in particular, and then discuss how technology aid healthcare professionals, epidemiologists and researchers in detection, identification, understanding, treating, and eventually preventing this disease—and future diseases. We welcome your participation! Please email us with your questions, answers and prognostications in advance.
Admission to the Austin Forum is always free. The Austin Forum accepts donations of used smart phones and tablets at all our events. All devices will have a factory reset and be set up as new by the team at Austin Pathways’ nationally-recognized “Unlocking the Connection” initiative, which will connect every public housing resident with a digital device, digital literacy, and a free or very low-cost internet connection. Your donated phone can change lives and help close Austin’s digital divide, thanks to Austin Pathways. |
John Fonner
Texas Advanced Computing Center, UT Austin |
John Fonner is the manager of the Life Sciences Computing – Emerging Technologies group at the Texas Advanced Computing Center. He and his team adopt, build, and deploy new software tools, interfaces, and infrastructure to make a broad range of research computing more scalable, reproducible, and accessible. He earned a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 2011 and joined TACC that same year. Over the past decade, he has helped lead a number of NSF, NIH, and DARPA funded projects that provide web portals, data sharing infrastructure, workflow automation, and containerized software tools.
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Eric Olson
Babson Diagnostics, Inc. |
Eric Olson is a 20-year veteran of the diagnostics industry. Prior to incubating Babson Diagnostics at Siemens Healthineers, Eric was Siemens’ VP, Portfolio & Product Management, responsible for its $3 billion global product portfolio of central laboratory technologies. He was also responsible for the company’s web properties and $1 billion in e-commerce operations as the global head of Siemens’ clinical laboratory automation and IT business, which advanced from #2 to #1 in market share during his tenure.
Eric earned his BS in Biology from MIT and his MS in Technology Management from the University of Pennsylvania. |
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Sherri Greenberg is a Professor Practice and Fellow of the Max Sherman Chair in State and Local Government at the LBJ School of Public Affairs. She is a Chairperson of the Board of Managers of Central Health, a Member of the City of Austin Regional Affordability Committee, and a Member of the UT Opportunity Forum Steering Committee. Also, she serves on the Texas.Gov Steering Committee, the Austin CityUP Board of Directors, the Austin Forum on Technology & Society Advisory Board, and the City of Austin General Obligation Housing Bond Review Committee. Additionally, she has served as a Senior Advisor to Austin Mayor Steve Adler. Greenberg was a Texas State Representative from 1991 to 2001, and she chaired the House Pensions and Investments Committee and the Select Committee on Teacher Health Insurance. She also served on the House Appropriations,Economic Development, Elections, and Science and Technology Committees. Previously, Greenberg was the City of Austin Capital Finance Manager, and a Public Finance Officer at Standard & Poor’s. Greenberg holds an MSc in Public Administration and Policy from the London School of Economics. Her teaching and research interests include: technology and innovation, urban and state issues, public engagement, housing, transportation, healthcare, public finance, and campaigns and elections. Her recent publications are: Congress and Social Media: Beyond Facebook & Twitter, Using Innovation and Technology to Improve City Services, Austin Anchors & The Innovation Zone: Building Collaborative Capacity, Congressional Committees and Social Media, and Congress + Social Media.
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