UF researcher Ira Longini works to understand infectious diseases and their transmission dynamics across the globe — and how to halt or slow them down. From dengue in the Yucatan Peninsula to Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, his work uses mathematical and statistical theory to model infectious disease outbreaks, and how public health strategies or therapeutic interventions can bring them to heel. This year, he’s trained his sights on COVID-19.
Longini is a biostatistics professor in UF’s College of Public Health and Health Professions and UF’s College of Medicine Department of Biostatistics. He is also a faculty member in UF’s Emerging Pathogens Institute and serves as an advisor to both the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.