Dr. Cummings is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine at Columbia University. His research interests lie at the intersection of infectious diseases and critical illness in sub-Saharan Africa, a low-income region where the global burden of severe and emerging infections is concentrated. In collaboration with colleagues at Uganda Virus Research Institute and the Columbia Center for Infection and Immunity, current areas of focus include: (1) elucidating pathobiological mechanisms of sepsis and severe viral respiratory infections in Uganda, (2) applying molecular methods to enhance diagnosis of severe HIV-associated tuberculosis, a major cause of sepsis in sub-Saharan Africa, and (3) advancing clinical and translational research capacity around acute and critical care in low-income settings. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Cummings led the first prospective studies to characterize the clinical epidemiology of severe and critical COVID-19 in the U.S. and Uganda, served as a co-investigator for international clinical trials of convalescent plasma and hyperimmune immunoglobulin in severe COVID-19, and contributed to globally harmonized analyses of severe COVID-19 epidemiology as a member of the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC).