Since August 2020 I have been working on a number of projects related to online discourse surrounding COVID-19.

The first such project looked at developing novel methods for monitoring COVID-19 misinformation spreading over social networks. As a member of an interdisciplinary team of researchers at Ohio State University and Northwestern University I formulated approaches to identify misinformation hubs using basic network and data science techniques. You can read more about this work here.

Other projects currently in progress consider potential links between alternative citations of published research and proponents of non-FDA approved COVID-19 treatments and the undermining of trust in public health officials and institutions through digital content.

My PhD research focused on the modeling of contagious processes, in particular the spreading of disease, behavior, and how those two interact. Using the tools of network science, dynamical systems, and statistical analysis I have examined how the spread of behavior can impact the spread of a disease throughout a population.

In my theoretical projects I investigated how cooperative behaviors spread throughout social networks, as well as how the coupling of behavior and infectious disease impacts the overall dynamics of both. A main finding of my work is that behavioral choices can lead to oscillations between high and low disease prevalence.

In my applied work I ran a study examining the effect of a promotional Twitter campaign on flu vaccination among college students. In this project randomly selected participants were exposed to tweets promoting flu shots. I then combined participants' flu vaccination outcome, Twitter data, and demographic variables to assess the significance of the campaign.

To see a list of my publications and presentations click here.

The Erdős Institute strives to help top PhD talent transition into industry positions with their meet, train, try, and hire programming.

I have been the Head of Talent Development at the Erdős Institute since 2017. In this role I have overseen the creation and expansion of coding bootcamps designed to teach PhD students desired data science and machine learning skills. I play an active role in the development of our bootcamp curriculum, spearheading the writing of our lesson plans and course materials.