Emerging Infectious Diseases

About the Emerging Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program 

The UCLA Emerging Infectious Diseases Fellowship is new, starting in July of 2026. The UCLA Department of Emergency Medicine (DEM) has been a national leader in infectious diseases education and research for decades. The fellowship aims are to perpetuate the successful focus at the intersection of emergency medicine (EM) and infectious diseases care by training leaders to teach, research, and collaborate with leading public health agencies in order to improve health outcomes of patients at greatest risk of infectious diseases, particularly those with severe illness that disproportionately seek care in the emergency department. 

UCLA DEM faculty, Drs. David Talan and Gregory Moran, were the first residency- and fellowship-trained and board-certified EM and ID physicians. In 1995, they established EMERGEncy ID NET, a U.S. emergency department-based network to research emerging infections, which CDC has funded for three decades. Through EMERGEncy ID NET, as well as NIH- and PCORI-sponsored projects, the UCLA EM ID program has made numerous practice-changing discoveries, which have been published in the highest impact journals.  

The fellowship is co-sponsored by the James A. Ferguson Fellowship Program. Dr. James A. Ferguson, an alumnus of Tuskegee University School of Veterinary Medicine, was passionate about providing opportunities for medical students and encouraged students to explore public health career options in infectious disease research, including in the areas of health promotion and emergency preparedness. In 1989, Dr. Ferguson played an instrumental role in the establishment of the National Center for Infectious Diseases Summer Research Fellowship Program. Dr. Ferguson's legacy continues 35 years later, through the Dr. James A. Ferguson Emerging Infectious Diseases Graduate Fellowship Program, which is administered through the CDC's Office of Health Promotion. 

Institutions

Olive View-UCLA Medical Center 

The fellow will have emergency department attending physician responsibilities as a UCLA DEM Clinical Instructor at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center (OV-UCLA), which is a public safety net hospital serving the two million people living in the San Fernando Valley, located at the northern section of Los Angeles County. OV-UCLA is a major teaching affiliate of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA with medical students and residents spending a significant portion of their training at OV-UCLA. Residents of the UCLA Emergency Medicine residency program spend 50% of their training at OV-UCLA. The hospital has 377 beds, while the 25,000 square foot emergency department, which was built in 2011, has 51 beds. The emergency department census is roughly 60,000 patients per year. The majority of patients are working poor, immigrants, and/or primarily Spanish-speaking. 

A street view of the Olive View Hospital

Curriculum

The fellowship duration is one year and the curriculum consists of the following: 1) UCLA School of Public Health Master’s program epidemiology training (unless already obtained, including similar degrees); 2) participation in numerous ongoing research projects; 3) collaboration with CDC and Ferguson fellows; 4) direction of a new project and writing a grant proposal; 5) didactic advanced ID instruction, including clinical ID, pharmacology, tropical medicine, and mass causality ID; and 6) inpatient ID consultation, microbiology laboratory (focused on rapid diagnostics), and UCLA Global Health Program (https://globalhealth.med.ucla.edu/; optional) rotations. A more detailed fellowship curriculum description can be found on the EMERGEncy ID NET website, which also describes some current and past research - https://www.emergencyidnet.org.  

Why UCLA?

UCLA DEM has the only EM ID center of excellence, with national leadership in ID education and research for decades. 

Program Faculty

  • David A. Talan, MD
  • Gregory J. Moran, MD
  • William R. Mower, MD, PhD
  • Jesus R. Torres, MD, MPH
  • Anusha Krishnadasan, PhD
  • Brett A. Faine, PharmD, MS (University of Iowa)
  • Nicholas M. Mohr, MD, MS (University of Iowa)
  • Matthew Waxman, MD
  • Amesh Adalja, MD (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health)
  • Robert Rodriguez, MD

Salary and Benefits

All fellows will receive an annual salary stipend ($70,000), housing allowance ($25,000), travel stipend ($5,000), and laptop/software ($1,200). Fellows will be expected to work four 8-hour shifts per month at the OV-UCLA emergency department, for which they will be compensated at a rate of approximately $185/hour. UCLA School of Public Health tuition and healthcare benefits will be provided. 

Apply  

Interested applicants should complete a brief application and be prepared to submit a Curriculum Vitae and Statement of Interest. 2-3 Letters of Recommendation will also be required to be submitted by referees.  All documents should be submitted using the Fellowship Application button below: 

                                                                    Fellowship Application

Jesus R. Torres, MD, MPH  
Fellowship Co-Director
jrtorres@mednet.ucla.edu 

Bonnie M. Cheung 
Fellowship Coordinator 
Department of Emergency Medicine 
1100 Glendon Avenue, Suite 1200 
Los Angeles, CA, 90024 
bcheung@mednet.ucla.edu  

Interviews will be granted to qualified applicants by invitation. 

Applicant Requirements 

  • Graduation from an ACGME-accredited 4-year Emergency Medicine Residency training program or 3-year program with at least one year of post-residency practice
  • Eligible to obtain a California Medical License
  • Curriculum vitae, and three letters of recommendation (including from residency director, with [expected] date of completion)
  • Letter of interest, including the role of the ED in infectious diseases public health, your research ideas, and how you anticipate the fellowship promoting your goals
  • The deadline for letters of intent and support is October 1, 2025.