Nina Fefferman, PhD

CMB Focused Discussion, Friday, March 11, 2022

Professor, University of Tennessee, Knoxville | Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology & Department of Mathematics | Director, The National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS)

Dr. Fefferman’s research focuses on the mathematics of epidemiology, evolutionary and behavioral ecology, and self-organizing behaviors, especially of systems described by networks. While the research in the Fefferman Lab frequently focuses on disease in human and/or animal populations, and how disease and disease-related behavioral ecology can affect the short-term survival and long-term evolutionary success of a population, people in the lab have worked on problems as diverse as computer network security to social behaviors in grass-roots organizations that make the movement susceptible to radicalization. Any fun integration of applied mathematics and human or animal processes is fair game!

Suggested Readings

Fefferman, N., Chen, C. F., Bonilla, G., Nelson, H., & Kuo, C. P. (2021). How limitations in energy access, poverty, and socioeconomic disparities compromise health interventions for outbreaks in urban settings. iScience, 24(12), 103389. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2021.103389 |  (VIEW/DOWNLOAD PDF)

Gallos, L. K., & Fefferman, N. H. (2015). Simple and efficient self-healing strategy for damaged complex networks. Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys, 92(5), 052806. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.92.052806  |  (VIEW/DOWNLOAD PDF)

Hobson, E. A., Silk, M. J., Fefferman, N. H., Larremore, D. B., Rombach, P., Shai, S., & Pinter-Wollman, N. (2021). A guide to choosing and implementing reference models for social network analysis. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc, 96(6), 2716-2734. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12775 |  (VIEW/DOWNLOAD PDF)

Silk, M. J., Carrignon, S., Bentley, R. A., & Fefferman, N. H. (2021). Improving pandemic mitigation policies across communities through coupled dynamics of risk perception and infection. Proc Biol Sci, 288(1955), 20210834. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.0834 |  (VIEW/DOWNLOAD PDF)

Silk, M. J., Carrignon, S., Bentley, R. A., & Fefferman, N. H. (2022). Observations and conversations: how communities learn about infection risk can impact the success of non-pharmaceutical interventions against epidemics. BMC Public Health, 22(1), 13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-12353-9 |  (VIEW/DOWNLOAD PDF)

Udiani, O., & Fefferman, N. H. (2020). How disease constrains the evolution of social systems. Proc Biol Sci, 287(1932), 20201284. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1284  |  (VIEW/DOWNLOAD PDF)