TEAM

Stefano Merler - HE Director

Stefano Merler

Director

RESEARCHERS

CarlaMolina grané

Carla Molina Grané

email: [email protected]

Dr. Carla Molina Grané is a postdoctoral researcher. She graduated in both Mathematics and Physics and holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Trento. Her primary research interests include the analysis of transmission dynamics of infectious diseases using computational models and the evaluation of control measures, with a focus on public health applications. She has expertise in working with large-scale data, compartmental models, and Bayesian approaches to study the transmission of various human infectious diseases, including mosquito-borne infections and COVID-19, among others.

Giorgio Guzzetta

email: [email protected]

Dr. Giorgio Guzzetta is a tenure-track researcher. He is a biomedical engineer with a PhD in Information and communication technologies. His primary research interests are mathematical models of infectious disease transmission dynamics with a focus on public health applications, assessments of potential risks, and evaluation of effectiveness of interventions. His expertise includes agent based models, compartmental models and bayesian approaches on a number of infectious diseases of humans, among which: COVID-19, mosquito-borne infections, varicella-zoster virus, tuberculosis, antimicrobial resistant pathogens and meningococcal meningitis. He is editorial board member for BMC Public Health.

Mattia Manica

email: [email protected]

Dr. Mattia Manica is a mathematical modeler with a PhD in Public Health and Infectious Diseases. His research interests span from the analysis of transmission dynamics of infectious diseases to the statistical assessment of control interventions and mitigation measures. His publications are listed here and available upon request.

Valentina Marziano

email: [email protected]

Dr. Valentina Marziano is a post-Doc researcher. She has started building her expertise on mathematical modelling for infectious diseases in 2012, with a master thesis at the Center for Health Emergencies. After that, she completed a PhD in Mathematics with a scholarship in “Computational Epidemiology”. Her research primarily focuses on transmission models for infectious diseases aimed at understanding long-term epidemiological dynamics and supporting public health decision makers. During her career, she has collaborated with several international institutions, including Bocconi University (Italy), Public Health England (UK) and the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (France), developing models for different diseases among which: COVID-19, H1N1 pandemic influenza, varicella, Herpes Zoster, and measles.

Piero Poletti

email: [email protected]

Dr. Piero Poletti is an epidemic modeler. He received the Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Trento and he currently holds a tenure-track position at the Bruno Kessler Foundation in Trento, Italy. His primary research interest is the investigation of the dynamics of infectious diseases using computational models applied to real-world data with the goal of informing public health decisions. His research activity aims at improving the understanding of observed epidemiological patterns and evaluation of alternative public policies, by identifying risk populations and by quantifying the contribution of different factors (e.g., mobility and mixing patterns, demography, spontaneous behavioral responses to the risk of infection) in shaping the transmission of infectious diseases in humans. His expertise includes the development, simulation, and analysis of compartmental and agent-based models, the adoption of statistical inference and bayesian approaches to analyze epidemiological records, and the performance of cost-effectiveness analyses. His past research focused on a variety of diseases including COVID-19, measles, varicella-zoster virus, zika, chikungunya, dengue, respiratory syncytial virus, influenza.

Shahid Nadim Sheikh

[email protected]

Dr. Shahid Nadim Sheikh is a postdoctoral researcher with Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics. His research interests lie at the interface of mathematical modeling of infectious diseases. His expertise includes between-host models among several diseases like COVID-19, dengue, Mers-CoV as well as within-host models on Influenza. Using mathematical tools such as nonlinear dynamics and dynamical control theory, he tries to understand transmission dynamics and mitigation strategies for infectious diseases.

Agnese Zardini

email: [email protected]

Dr. Agnese Zardini is a post-Doc researcher with a PhD in Mathematics. Her primary research interest is the study of population and infectious diseasedynamics throughout the development and the analysis of computational models informed with real data. In particular, her past research focused on the estimate of the spatio-temporal dynamics of mosquitoes and on the study of several diseases, including COVID-19, chikungunya, dengue, zika, and usutu.

PhD Students

Luca Allegri

email: [email protected]

Luca Allegri holds a degree in Physics of Data from the University of Padua and is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Padua in collaboration with Fondazione Bruno Kessler. His expertise and interests lie in complex systems and non-equilibrium statistical physics, with applications in fields such as biology, ecology, epidemiology, and neuroscience.

Tommaso Bertola

[email protected]

Tommaso Bertola is a PhD student in Physics at the University of Padua. He graduated in Physics of Data in Padua with a thesis focusing on the critical behaviour in epidemic models specifically targeting seasonal influenza in Italy. His research topic converges to the idea of constraining predictive models with complex dynamical systems with applications to the understanding of epidemiology and infodemics.

Alfredo de Bellis

email: [email protected]

Alfredo De Bellis is a PhD student in Mathematics at University of Trento. His research is focused on the mathematical modeling of infectious diseases and the evaluation of interventions against them. He graduated in Theoretical Physics within a curriculum in Statistical Mechanics at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” with a thesis on spreading phenomena on complex networks. His area of expertise includes compartmental epidemic models, stochastic processes and the theory of complex systems.

Andrea Bizzotto

[email protected]

Andrea Bizzotto is a PhD student at University of Trento.  He graduated in Pure and Applied Mathematics at University of Padua (Bachelor Degree) and in Mathematics and Statistics for Life and Social Sciences: Modelling, Statistics and Analysis of Biosystems (Master Degree). His research is mainly focused on the development of mathematical and statistical models to investigate the transmission of emerging and re-emerging pathogens in human populations. 

Francesco Menegale

[email protected]

Francesco Menegale is a PhD student at University of Trento and Bruno Kessler Foundation. His main research interest is the application of mathematical and statistical models in the field of biology and infectious diseases.

Riccardo Sbarbati

Riccardo Sbarbati

[email protected]

Riccardo Sbarbati obtained his MSc in Physics of Data at the University of Padova, where he is now pursuing a PhD in Physics. His research focuses mainly on interdisciplinary applications of Physics using Complex Systems and Network Science, and he is particularly attracted to the possibility of implementing these tools in fields such as environmental science, epidemiology and medicine, encompassing both theoretical and computational approaches

Angelo Valente

[email protected]

Angelo Valente is a PhD student in Mathematics at the University of Trento. He completed both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Mathematics at the University of Trento, specializing in the Mathematics and Statistics for Life and Social Sciences track. His research focuses on investigating the transmission dynamics of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, as well as simulating interventions to contain their spread. His expertise includes compartmental epidemic models, statistical models and cascades on complex networks.

Alumni

Margherita Galli