University of Padova, Italy
Chiara Poletto is an associate professor at the Department of Molecular Medicine at the University of Padova, working on the spreading of infectious diseases seen as a complex system phenomenon. Epidemics are mediated by sociodemographic and environmental factors acting at different scales. The mathematical and computational modelling of this complex interdependence to quantify infection risk, its persistence, and impact on the population is a central question of her research work. Within this broad context, she dedicates special attention to emerging pathogen events, outbreak analysis, and modelling to inform the design of interventions. She has worked on the influenza pandemic of 2009, MERS emergence, Western Africa Ebola outbreak of 2014, Chikungunya and Zika epidemics, and COVID-19. Poletto received her PhD in Physics at the University of Padova in 2009. Before joining the University of Padova in November 2022, she was a staff researcher (Chargée de Recherche) at INSERM in Paris. Poletto received the Junior Scientific Award of the Complex Systems Society for extraordinary scientific achievements. Her studies on emerging pathogens’ epidemics (from Ebola outbreak to COVID-19) have translated into expert advises for public health decision makers.