With a $1 million grant, University of Georgia researchers begin investigating how to foretell and stop future health emergencies before they become pandemic.
Researchers at the University of Georgia Center for the Ecology of Infectious Diseases plan to use the National Science Foundation’s grant to develop systems modeling how pandemics spread to and between humans.
The project’s director, Professor John Drake of the Odum School of Ecology, is confident that his team can create predictive disease models, and takes inspiration from metrology’s “success of atmospheric models for weather prediction.”
His team, comprised of UGA researchers and scientists from the University of Michigan and the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, have 18 months to show that their research can prepare public health officials, governments, and nations to tackle future pandemics.