ANDRZEJ KRAUZE
On Peter Hudson’s 50th birthday (May 22, 2003), 75 disease ecologists and evolutionary biologists from around the world gathered in his Pennsylvania backyard for a soccer game and barbecue. He had just been recruited to Penn State University from the University of Stirling in Scotland, and Penn State colleague Ottar Bjornstad decided that a conference focused on the ecology and evolution of infectious disease would be a great way to welcome Hudson to the faculty. “And having it around my birthday suddenly became the easy way to do it,” Hudson says.
So Bjornstad pitched it to the dean, who, eager to build the university’s infectious-disease program, gave the researchers the green light. But Bjornstad and Hudson didn’t want to merely throw a party; they wanted ...
