Gerardo Chowell-Puente
Georgia State University

I am a Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the School of Public Health at Georgia State University in Atlanta. I received my PhD in Biometry from Cornell University in 2005. I have previously served as the Inaugural Chair of the Department of Population Health Sciences at GSU and directed the Center for Global Health in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. I have over 18 years of experience studying infectious disease transmission dynamics and control by integrating diverse data sources with mathematical, statistical, and epidemiological methods. His interdisciplinary research approach includes developing, evaluating, and applying rigorous quantitative tools for investigating infectious disease transmission dynamics and generating evidence-based forecasts of the trajectory of evolving epidemics. I collaborate with scientists and public health officials around the world. For instance, during the 2009 A/H1N1 influenza pandemic, he collaborated with researchers and public health officials in Mexico to advise the Office of the President on the transmissibility, severity, and control interventions associated with this pandemic. This work helped inform early public health policy. In the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, our work has shed light on the novel coronavirus's key transmission and epidemiological features. Our work provided early evidence of the significant role of asymptomatic individuals in the transmission dynamics of SARS-CoV-2. My research program has been supported by grants from federal agencies, including NSF, NIH, and the Fogarty International Center. My work has appeared in a variety of medical and epidemiology journals, including The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, The BMJ, PLOS Medicine, The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, BMC Medicine, Clinical Infectious Diseases, Emerging Infectious Diseases, The Journal of Infectious Diseases, and The American Journal of Epidemiology. My work has also been cited numerous times by major media outlets, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Politico, The Economist, Nature, Forbes, STAT, NPR, and TIME magazine.