Research from the EpiModel Research Lab at Emory University: infectious disease modeling, network science, HIV prevention, STI epidemiology, and respiratory pathogens.
I build mechanistic models of how infectious diseases move through contact networks, and the empirical studies and open-source software those models depend on. The work runs across five areas, but it is one program: the methods built for HIV prevention are the methods that ran on jails and workplaces during COVID-19, and the network data collected for one pathogen parameterizes models for the next.
131Peer-reviewed papers2009 to 2026
60As first or senior author26 first, 34 senior
33Funded projects14 active, 6 as PI
6Open-source R packages4 companion web apps
43Papers spanning two areasof 131 total
01 · Portfolio
How the program developed
Peer-reviewed papers per year in each area, on a shared vertical scale so the areas stay comparable. Papers spanning two areas are counted in both.
HIV Prevention
first paper 2009 · peak 9 in 2026
75PAPERS
Empirical Network Data
first paper 2010 · peak 7 in 2021
43PAPERS
Respiratory Diseases
first paper 2020 · peak 6 in 2025
25PAPERS
STI Epidemiology
first paper 2010 · peak 4 in 2019
20PAPERS
Methods and Software
first paper 2011 · peak 3 in 2018
13PAPERS
2009201220152018202120242026
02 · Structure
How the areas connect
Each circle is a research area, sized by its number of papers. A line joins two areas when papers belong to both, and thickens with the count. 43 of the 131 papers carry more than one area.
circle area = papers line width = shared papers
Empirical Network Data is the connective tissue. It shares 32 papers with the four other areas, more than any other pairing in the program. That is the argument for reading these as one body of work rather than five: the empirical network studies are what the HIV, STI, and respiratory models are all built on.
03 · The five areas
What each area does
HIV Prevention Research
75 papers · since 2009
How biomedical, behavioral, and structural interventions interact at the population level. Recent projects cover long-acting injectable PrEP, over-the-counter PrEP (OFFSCRIPT), decision analytics for the PrEP cascade of care, and the role of HIV partner services in a modern biomedical prevention era.
Model estimates of PrEP impact, indication, and cascade of care have been produced for CDC guideline evaluation and for health-department planning.
Representative work
Doxycycline Postexposure Prophylaxis and Bacterial Sexually Transmitted Infections Among Individuals Using HIV Preexposure ProphylaxisJAMA Internal Medicine2025PubMed · DOI
A Decision Analytics Model to Optimize Investment in Interventions Targeting the HIV PrEP Cascade of CareAIDS2021PubMed · DOI
Addressing Gaps in HIV Preexposure Prophylaxis Care to Reduce Racial Disparities in HIV Incidence in the United StatesAmerican Journal of Epidemiology2019PubMed · DOI · PDF
Infections averted across levels of PrEP uptake and reinitiation, Boston.
Empirical Network Data and Bias Analysis
43 papers · since 2010
Good models depend on good data. Empirical studies that generate the partnership and contact parameters models need, including the ARTnet study of men who have sex with men across the United States, alongside methods to correct measurement bias in survey-based network data.
ARTnet supplies the partnership-network parameters that United States models of HIV among men who have sex with men are built on, ours and other groups’ alike.
Representative work
Characterizing Social Behavior Relevant for Infectious Disease Transmission in Four Low- and Middle-Income Countries, 2021–2023Nature Communications2025PubMed · DOI
Dynamic Contact Networks of Residents of an Urban Jail in the Era of SARS-CoV-2Epidemics2024PubMed · DOI
Egocentric Sexual Networks of Men Who Have Sex with Men in the United States: Results from the ARTnet StudyEpidemics2020PubMed · DOI · PDF
Contact rates by age across four low- and middle-income countries.
Respiratory Infectious Diseases
25 papers · since 2020
Network-based and compartmental models for respiratory pathogens, including SARS-CoV-2, influenza, and tuberculosis, across university campuses, cruise ships, workplaces, urban jails, and households in low-resource settings. Collaborative work on drug-resistant TB in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (CONTEXT study) integrates geospatial, genomic, and social network data.
The same network machinery was redirected to SARS-CoV-2 in campuses, jails, workplaces, and cruise ships, and to drug-resistant tuberculosis transmission in KwaZulu-Natal.
Representative work
Dynamic Network Strategies for SARS-CoV-2 Control on a Cruise ShipEpidemics2021PubMed · DOI
A Model of COVID-19 Transmission and Control on University CampusesScientific Reports2021PubMed · DOI
Modeling Missing Cases and Transmission Links in Networks of Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis in KwaZulu-Natal, South AfricaAmerican Journal of Epidemiology2020PubMed · DOI · PDF
Casual versus close contact in drug-resistant tuberculosis transmission.
STI Epidemiology and Doxy-PEP
20 papers · since 2010
Epidemiology and prevention of bacterial sexually transmitted infections (gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis) among key populations, from the cost-effectiveness of doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis (STIRRUP), to expedited partner therapy modeling, to the interaction between HIV PrEP uptake and bacterial STI incidence.
Work on doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis and on STI screening under PrEP care has run from cost-effectiveness modeling through to real-world evaluation.
Representative work
Gaps in Screening of Sexually Transmitted Infections among Men Who Have Sex with Men during PrEP Care in the United StatesClinical Infectious Diseases2021PubMed · DOI · PDF
Bacterial STI Screening Rates by Symptomatic Status among Men Who Have Sex with Men in the United States: A Hierarchical Bayesian AnalysisSexually Transmitted Diseases2019PubMed · DOI · PDF
Incidence of Gonorrhea and Chlamydia Following HIV Preexposure Prophylaxis among Men Who Have Sex with MenClinical Infectious Diseases2017PubMed · DOI · PDF
Bacterial STI positivity before and after starting doxy-PEP.
Methods and Software for Infectious Disease Modeling
13 papers · since 2011
Generalized methods and software for modeling infectious disease transmission dynamics, most notably EpiModel, a platform for building and simulating mechanistic epidemic models over dynamic contact networks represented with exponential-family random graph models. Fully open source, with Github source and an annual workshop, Network Modeling for Epidemics.
EpiModel is cited in over 130 papers by our group and by modeling groups worldwide, and is taught each year through the Network Modeling for Epidemics workshop.
Representative work
Improving and Extending STERGM Approximations Based on Cross-Sectional Data and Tie DurationsJournal of Computational and Graphical Statistics2024PubMed · DOI
Assessing the Validity of Sexual Network Degree among Men Who Have Sex with Men using Prospective Cohort DataEpidemiology2020PubMed · DOI · PDF
EpiModel: An R Package for Mathematical Modeling of Infectious Disease over NetworksJournal of Statistical Software2018PubMed · DOI · PDF
A simulated dynamic contact network with transmission along active ties.
04 · What sustains it
Funding and software
Funded projects
33 externally funded projects, 14 of them currently active: 6 as principal investigator, 8 as site principal investigator, and the rest as co-investigator.
NIH 23CDC 4Industry 2Elton John AIDS Foundation 1Gates Foundation 1NSF 1Washington State DOH 1
