Michael Johansson

Professor Johansson works at the interface of research and operational public health using statistical and mathematical models to improve surveillance, prevention, and control of infectious diseases with a focus on vector-borne diseases such as chikungunya, dengue, yellow fever, and Zika. His research ranges from assessing climate impacts on basic virus and mosquito biology to identifying drivers of global transmission dynamics. It integrates biology, immunology, ecology, environment, climate, socioeconomics, local and global mobility, and human behavior, all of which contribute to the emergence, changing epidemiology, and growing burden of these diseases.

Over more than a decade working at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Puerto Rico, Professor Johansson worked with partners ranging for local health departments to the World Health Organization to develop, evaluate, and implement advanced analytical tools for surveillance system design, early warning systems, nowcasting, forecasting, risk assessment, and intervention planning and evaluation. He led or co-led the modeling teams in CDC emergency responses for Zika, COVID-19, and dengue and co-founded the CDC Epidemic Prediction Initiative in 2014, which pioneered open, collaborative infectious disease forecasting challenges to improve the science and implementation of infectious disease forecasting.

His current research aims to understand the integrated impacts of complex drivers on local and global infectious disease dynamics and to develop, evaluate, and implement quantitative tools to improve surveillance, situational awareness, burden evaluation, assessment of emergence risk, and diverse control strategies (e.g., mosquito control, Wolbachia, and vaccines) that are essential for current and future control.

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