Manuela Rehr, PhD MScPH

Manuela Rehr is a microbiologist and epidemiologist working at the intersection of global health and AI.

She spent >16 years in international public health: as a field epidemiologist and laboratory specialist with Médecins Sans Frontières, as a senior technical officer with KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation, and as an independent consultant for USAID and FIND. 

Her consulting work focuses on geospatial analysis and optimization of diagnostic networks, with country-level projects across Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, the Philippines, Uganda, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe. 

She developed and open-sourced the Diagnostic Network Explorer geospatial analysis app and published a multi-country accessibility analysis for novel TB diagnostics across 11 countries in East and Southern Africa.

She has since trained in machine learning, neural network architectures, and the mathematical foundations of transformers, as well as applied AI systems including agentic workflows and knowledge management systems. Her current independent research is in mechanistic interpretability, investigating how language models represent and process information that can lead to biased responses.

She holds an MSc in Chemistry from the University of Marburg, a PhD in Natural Sciences from ETH Zurich and an MSc in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.