Lauren Charles

Bio

Dr. Lauren Charles is a veterinarian, Chief Data Scientist, and Group Lead of the Applied Artificial Intelligence (AI) Systems Group at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Charles’ research integrates multimodal data, e.g., medical records and disease reporting with opensource data, natural disasters, meteorology, topography, and socioeconomic factors, into complex models to advance current Biosurveillance, event and anomaly detection, threat assessment, and early warning through a One Health approach. Her past research focused on wildlife population health, epidemiology, ecology, infectious diseases, and the interface between weather, environment, wildlife, humans, domestic, and agricultural animals.

Currently, Charles leads PNNL’s AI-Driven One Health Security program, which focuses on disrupting health threats and their impacts. Leveraging PNNL’s leadership in operational AI and One Health, the team works at the local, regional, national, and global levels to achieve optimal health and security results. Charles sits on the editorial board of Nature’s Scientific Reports, Pathogens journal, and is an associate editor for CABI One Health. She also serves as an advisor on Senator Gillibrand’s One Health Security Council and holds a joint appointment with Washington State University’s Paul Allen School for Global Health.

Dr. Charles holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and minor in environmental studies with a biology equivalent from Boston College. From NC State, she earned her master’s degree in plant pathology/bioInformatics, Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine from the CVM, and PhD in the Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology Program.