Akihiro Nishi, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, will be co-principal investigator on a project to improve pandemic preparedness. The project will be funded by a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation.
UCLA is one of the partners helping the University of Texas at Austin establish the UT Center for Pandemic Decision Science, which will bring scientists, engineers, clinicians and policymakers together to figure out how to tackle future pandemics. Nishi and the UCLA team will analyze infection, social media and mobility data from the COVID-19 pandemic and the monkeypox outbreak. They will also work ahead on ways to prepare for future unknown pathogens.
Nishi is a social epidemiologist whose research focuses on improving economic inequality; the inequality of well-being in online social networks; health consequences of nationwide policies in aging countries such as Japan; and developing network interventions to address the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read the full story about the grant on the Fielding School website.
