Edwin Michael, PhD

Professor

Contact Info

• Office: CPH 2126, IDRB 336B (LAB)
• Academic Email: emichael443@usf.edu
• Academic Phone: (813) 974-9310
• View My C.V. | View My Lab Site

Education

Discipline

Epidemiology, Population Biology, and Computational Disease Dynamics

Specialization

• Epidemiology and population ecology of disease transmission

Biography

Dr. Edwin Michael is an epidemiologist who studies the spread and control of global infectious diseases. The overriding objective of Dr. Michael’s research is to address questions regarding the population ecology, epidemiology, dynamics, and control of tropical vector-borne and zoonotic diseases, including lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, dengue and malaria, enteric diseases, and more recently epidemic diseases, such as SARS-Cov-2/Covid-19. A common theme running across these research programs is a primary focus on the development and implementation of novel analytical and computational approaches for providing a deeper understanding of the determinants, pathways and dynamics of disease transmission in endemic communities and using the insights gained for identifying and analyzing sustainable approaches to disease control. Insights are based on the integrated application of emerging tools and approaches particularly in the fields of system dynamics modeling, computational science, community ecology, socio-ecology, spatio-temporal analysis, molecular biology, parasite population genetics, information technology, biostatistics, and health policy. In his laboratory, Dr. Michael also studies the influence of global climate change on vector- and environmentally-mediated infectious disease transmission, as well as the increasingly important public health topic of the epidemiology of chronic and infectious disease co-occurrence and morbidity in developing populations, focusing in particular on the implications of the growing incidence of diabetes mellitus in these communities for the transmission and control of infectious diseases such as TB, HIV and melioidosis. Currently, he leads the development of the SEIRcast covid-19 modelling portal for supporting population-level response and hospital surge planning to contain the pandemic at the county level.