Lauren Killingsworth

Lauren Killingsworth is an MD-PhD student at Yale School of Medicine in the Department of History of Science and Medicine. She conducts interdisciplinary scholarship on infectious disease, environmental history, and public health. Her current work looks at ecological approaches to disease control in the twentieth century, including biological control technologies that relied on nuclear science. She is the recipient of the History of Science Society’s Nathan Reingold Prize for her work on the use of mosquito-eating fish for malaria control in India. She holds a BS in Biology from Stanford University and an MPhil in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Cambridge, where she was a Gates Cambridge Scholar.

Through the Nuclear Security Program, she will examine the global history and politics of nuclear science in its application to disease control. More specifically, she is interested in the use of nuclear science in vector-borne disease control and vaccine development. This summer she will be conducting historical research at the archives of the International Atomic Energy Agency, World Health Organization, and the US-Mexico Commission for the Eradication of Screwworm. She is interested to see how these organizations addressed both global health and nuclear diplomacy.

Bio recorded June 2025