Prof. Birnbaum currently is the Chair of the Board of Directors of World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine (WADEM) and Emeritus Editor-in-Chief of Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, Official Journal of the WADEM. Dr. Birnbaum is also Emeritus Professor of Medicine and Physiology at University of Wisconsin‑Madison.

Prof. Birnbaum is the leader of disaster research. He is the co-author of the Health Disaster Management Guidelines for Evaluation and Research in the Utstein Style. In this summer course, Prof Birnbaum will provide an overview different types and frameworks of research and evaluations of the health aspects of disasters.