The Fox lab was established at the University of Georgia in Fall of 2022 with the focus on understanding and forecasting infectious disease dynamics to improve public health outcomes and policies. We specialize in integrating population-level infectious disease data with epidemiological models through statistical analysis and simulation, and we primarily work on respiratory viruses like influenza and COVID-19 (though we dabble in other emerging infectious diseases from time to time as outbreaks arise).

There is no specific project for this position, but rather the postdoctoral associate will work with the PI to develop a research agenda together. The lab is currently working on a few different projects that might be of interest to potential researchers including: (1) integrating social media data and psychological dynamics into epidemiological models for understanding COVID-19 and monkeypox transmission dynamics; (2) Estimating the interactions between COVID-19 and influenza alongside the impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions on both; (3) designing and optimizing genomic surveillance systems for COVID-19; and (4) infectious disease forecasting, including thinking about data, models, and evaluation metrics. These projects are all based on public health needs exposed during the pandemic and span from basic research understanding epidemiological dynamics to applied research working directly with public health officials and decision-makers.

Depending on the decided project the postdoctoral associate may be responsible for gathering data, performing dynamic analyses, preparing manuscripts and presentations, communicating results, etc