Prasad Kasibhatla

The recognition of the importance of airborne transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has spurred several research groups to develop and apply simple mechanistic aerosol models to investigate COVID-19 outbreaks associated with specific events. To date, however, there is a disconnect between these micro-scale mechanistic aerosol models and the macro-scale epidemiological models that have been used to study large-scale COVID-19 disease dynamics. I propose to initiate a new research effort, in collaboration with Prof. Jose Jimenez, to close this gap by coupling simple mechanistic aerosol models to epidemiological infectious disease models for COVID-19. In the long run, this improved modeling framework will allow for a more rigorous assessment of the role of aerosol transmission in shaping large-scale COVID-19 disease dynamics and for characterizing the collective impact of micro-scale mitigation strategies (such as improved ventilation and masking) on macro-scale disease dynamics.