About Alessandro Vespignani
Alessandro Vespignani research activity is focused on the study of “techno-social” systems, where infrastructures composed of different technological layers are interoperating within the social component that drives their use and development. In this context we aim at understanding how the very same elements assembled in large number can give rise – according to the various forces and elements at play – to different macroscopic and dynamical behaviors, opening the path to quantitative computational approaches and forecasting power.
The main research lines pursued at the moment are:
- Develop analytical and computational models for the co-evolution and interdependence of large-scale social, technological and biological networks.
- Modeling contagion processes in structured populations.
- Developing predictive computational tools for the analysis of the spatial spread of emerging diseases.
- Analyze the dynamics and evolution of information and social networks.
- Model the adaptive behavior of social systems.
Prof. Vespignani is a joint appointment between the College of Science, the College of Computer and Information Science, and the Bouvé College of Health Sciences.
Institutes, Labs & Research Centers
MoBS Lab
Physics
Biology
Network Science Program
Alessandro Vespignani’s research activity is focused on the study of “techno-social” systems, where infrastructures composed of different technological layers are interoperating within the social components that drives their use and development.
Faculty
Network Science Institute
Network Science Program
Physics
The NSI works to discover and inspire fundamentally new ways to measure, model, predict and visualize meaningful interactions and interconnectivity of social, physical and technological systems. Faculty include: Alessandro Vespignani, Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, Dima Krioukov, Samuel Scarpino.
Alessandro Vespignani in the news
July 23, 2024
How Northeastern researchers are helping predict the outbreak of bird flu on US dairy farms
Bird flu has been detected in 169 livestock herds on dairy farms in 13 states. Northeastern researchers are creating a “risk map” of which farms might be next.
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June 18, 2024
Northeastern summit on innovative public health technology is an important first step to fixing systemic flaws
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the nation’s public health infrastructure was underprepared, to say the least. Public health officials relied on fax machines to deliver test results, hand wrote people’s vaccination status on small pieces of cardboard and discovered that stockpiles of masks and gowns to protect health care workers were insufficient. “We really have […]
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April 5, 2024
‘Landmark in survey research’: How the COVID States Project analyzed the pandemic with objectivity
Four years ago David Lazer formed the Northeastern-led effort — resulting in more than 100 cutting-edge reports and national media coverage.
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November 16, 2023
What should stay open during the next pandemic? New model weighs protecting public health and the economy
The COVID-19 pandemic not only threatened the health of people around the world, but also exacted a significant toll on the global economy.
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September 19, 2023
Northeastern receives $17.5 million from CDC to launch infectious disease prediction center
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is giving Northeastern University $17.5 million over the next five years to head an innovation center designed to help detect and prepare the United States for the next outbreak of infectious disease, especially in rural areas.
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July 27, 2023
Network Science Institute expansion to London creates new European hub for trail blazing academic field
Northeastern University has expanded its world leading Network Science Institute to the university’s campus in London in a move that will establish a new European hub in the fast-growing research field of network science. As part of the expansion, the university has recruited a team of researchers to join its faculty in the United Kingdom. […]
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June 12, 2023
More Than 50% of COVID-19 Deaths Could Have Been Prevented
Better access to vaccines could have prevented more than 50% of COVID-19 deaths in 20 lower income countries, according to a new paper in Nature Communications co-authored by Northeastern professor Alessandro Vespignani.
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March 2, 2023
For his leadership on COVID-19, Alessandro Vespignani receives ‘lifetime honor’ from American Association for the Advancement of Science
Alessandro Vespignani, director of the Network Science Institute and Sternberg Family Distinguished Professor at Northeastern, has been elected as a Fellow to the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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May 23, 2022
Experts weigh-in: is Monkeypox the next COVID-19? Here’s what we know.
Cases of monkeypox, a rare viral disease, are being investigated in a growing number of countries, including the United States.
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May 17, 2022
Your Google searches and tweets might help forecast the next disease outbreak
People leave a trail of breadcrumbs when they navigate the digital world, offering clues about what is happening in their lives—including their health. Northeastern’s Mauricio Santillana is using machine learning algorithms to turn those clues into an early warning system for disease outbreaks.
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April 5, 2022
How worried should you be about BA.2?
Alessandro Vespignani and Jared Auclair discuss what the new COVID-19 variant implies for our future.
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February 22, 2022
For COVID-19, ‘Endemic’ does not mean ‘The End.’
Health experts often use the word "endemic" when referring to our future once the COVID-19 pandemic leaves its frenzied early years. Alessandro Vespignani discusses what "endemic" really means.
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February 9, 2022
COVID-19 cases are dropping in the U.S. What comes after the Omicron wave?
As Omicron levels are finally on the downfall and warmer weather approaches, Alessandro Vespignani predicts that we "may be able to breathe a little easier."
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January 21, 2022
What has changed in the way we talk about COVID-19? Revisiting pandemic terminology and Omicron.
Northeastern experts bring clarity to the different ways we talk about the corona virus. Alessandro Vespignani adds to the conversation on cases versus infections.
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January 11, 2022
Omicron is setting records. How much do the numbers matter?
Professor Alessandro Vespignani comments on the difference between previous COVID peaks and the current Omicron surge.
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January 6, 2022
When Will The Omicron Surge Be Over? Very Soon.
As citizens worry about the trajectory of the Omicron variant in the U.S., professor Alessandro Vespignani provides a positive prediction for the future.
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December 17, 2021
Omicron moves fast. Here’s what that means for the next few weeks.
A virus that moves as quickly around the globe as the omicron variant could spell disaster just as people are traveling and gathering for holiday and New Year celebrations. But the devil’s in the details when it comes to COVID-19—and that could be a good thing.
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November 30, 2021
Omicron variant questions mount– answers are on the way
Scientists keep close watch of the omicron variant as it continues to spread across South Africa.
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November 29, 2021
Where others see walls, she looks for bridges
There was something familiar about the murals and graffiti, says Sarah Bernt. “It just evokes something that I had seen before.” Stretched across the Peace Wall in Belfast, Northern Ireland, were messages of harmony and love. Bernt, who graduated from Northeastern in 2019 with a degree in political science, was on a political tour of […]
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When will we know more about the omicron variant?
A new Covid-19 variant, Omicron has been detected in South Africa.
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October 29, 2021
Covid-19 isn’t a ghost just yet. But it may be getting there.
The specter of the coronavirus loomed large at this time last year. Cases were beginning to rise heading into the winter, and a massive surge was still ahead. With no vaccines yet available to provide immunity to the virus, Halloween was a subdued affair, making COVID-19 the only ghoul in town. But this year, Halloween […]
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September 28, 2021
He predicted the widespread Covid-19 pandemic early on. Now he’s being knighted by the Italian government.
Alessandro Vespignani is knighted by the Italian government for his contributions to advancing cooperation between Italy and the United States during the pandemic.
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June 30, 2021
College of Science Connects: Research at the Frontier – Theoretical Condensed Matter & Biological Physics
Alessandro Vespignani, Sternberg Family Distinguished Professor of Physics, presents his research as part of the Northeastern Office of Alumni Relations College of Science Connects series.
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December 17, 2020
New Global Partnerships Expand Northeastern Ph.D Programs to Italy and Hong Kong
Northeastern’s doctoral students can forge global networks and pursue experiential learning in an international environment thanks to new agreements with a pair of widely recognized universities in Asia and Europe. The global experiential doctoral program between Northeastern, the University of Hong Kong, and Sapienza University of Rome is interdisciplinary flexibility, which allows students to pursue doctoral degrees in […]
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October 25, 2020
The Sum Total: A Collection of COVID-19 Stories Across COS
When COVID-19 emerged as global threat, it demanded action. The Northeastern College of Science heard the call. Read the stories of the COS community doing their part to fight the pandemic.
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October 13, 2020
Flu Season Is Coming and Covid-19 Is Still Here. Can Disease Forecasts Tell Them Apart?
Flu season can be difficult for regular people, and those like Alessandro Vespignani who try to predict it. Adding in COVID could make it a nightmare.
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June 18, 2020
Finding the Needle in the Data Stack: Advice from a Facebook Data Scientist
During her time at Northeastern, Delia Mocanu developed a passion for network science. Now at Facebook, she finds herself working on one of the largest data experiments in history — the News Feed.
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April 27, 2020
The Coronavirus Was in the Us in January. We Need to Understand How We Missed It.
SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, was circulating in major U.S. cities as early as January, says Alessandro Vespignani, director of Northeastern’s Network Science Institute. And if we want to keep our communities safe going forward, we need to understand how we missed a virus that was right under our noses.
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March 26, 2020
‘Social Distancing’ Is Only the First Step Toward Stopping the Covid-19 Pandemic
After days of closures and requests—or orders—to stay home, many people caught in the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic are wondering if these efforts will be enough. Network scientist Alessandro Vespignani says the answer depends on the ways that local, regional, and federal governments use the time.
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February 5, 2020
The Coronavirus Outbreak Is an International Public Health Emergency. Here’s What You Need to Know.
“Either the screening, detection, and isolation in China will be able to contain the epidemic there, or it will be a global issue,” says Alessandro Vespignani, Sternberg Family Distinguished University Professor at Northeastern. “And this will be decided in the next couple of weeks.”
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August 15, 2019
Can the Ebola Outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo Be Stopped?
The second-largest Ebola outbreak on record began in late July 2018 in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Northeastern professor Alessandro Vespignani and his colleagues are working with the WHO to help model and forecast different aspects of the disease.
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November 20, 2018
Tracking an epidemic requires computer models. But what if those models are wrong?
Researchers at Northeastern have found that one of the basic assumptions used in disease modeling simply isn’t realistic. Now they’re looking at how epidemics travel through various layers of a population in order to find a better way to track a disease.
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August 13, 2018
How long is an Ebola survivor contagious? One case is causing scientists to rethink the answer.
Surviving Ebola isn’t like getting over the flu. In recent years, researchers have found that the Ebola virus can linger in some survivors, though it was unclear how likely these individuals were to transmit the deadly disease.
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March 5, 2018
How big data and the science of science can revolutionize discovery
Northeastern network scientists Albert-László Barabási and Alessandro Vespignani want to “push the pedal” on science and its benefit to society. In a paper published Thursday in the journal Science, they described lessons learned from a literature review of the science of science.
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May 5, 2017
Researchers use Twitter to track the flu in real time
An international team led by Northeastern’s Alessandro Vespignani has developed a unique computational model that uses Twitter to project the spread of the seasonal flu in real time. With it, public health agencies can plan ahead, allocating medical resources and launching preventative care campaigns.
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August 2, 2016
Underreporting of Zika is rife; researchers project epidemic’s spread
New research from Northeastern professor Alessandro Vespignani finds that the number of reported Zika cases in the U.S. may be just the tip of the iceberg due to widespread underreporting. The study also models the predicted spread of Zika across the Americas through 2017.
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June 9, 2016
In the News: Does The Olympics In Rio Put The World In Danger Of Zika?
Sternberg Distinguished University Professor Alessandro Vespignani tells NPR that he doesn't believe Zika poses a big enough risk to move the Olympic games out of Rio this summer.
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April 11, 2016
Northeastern researchers examine the Zika pandemic
As the Zika virus continues its inexorable spread, a panel of faculty members discussed how they—and by extension we—can be part of the global solution.
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April 7, 2016
What social media data could tell us about the future
Can a flow of information across Twitter signal when a momentous event is about to occur? Northeastern’s Alessandro Vespignani and an interdisciplinary group of scientists developed a method to find out. Their findings represent an initial step in constructing models to detect trouble before it’s too late.
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November 6, 2015
World-renowned scholars launch Northeastern’s Network Science Institute
The Network Science Institute, home of the nation’s first doctoral program in network science, brings together an interdisciplinary team of renowned Northeastern scholars to plumb the structure and function of systems and develop intervention strategies to improve the health and security of people around the world.
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August 12, 2015
Should we be worried about the plague?
California’s Department of Public Health announced last week that a child contracted the plague after visiting Yosemite National Park in July, the third reported case this year. With the plague’s recent return to the news, we took a look at some myths and truths about the centuries-old disease.
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May 20, 2015
How to battle disease using Big Data
At the latest installment of the “Minds over Matters: NUterm Faculty Speaker Series,” Sternberg Family Distinguished University Professor Alessandro Vespignani described how his lab is able to predict the spread of a disease by tracking just one person.
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January 20, 2015
3Qs: Tracking the flu
College of Science professor Alessandro Vespignani, a world-renowned network scientist, is working to forecast the spread of the flu.
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November 6, 2014
A new tool to follow Ebola news on Twitter
A new Web tool co-developed by network scientist Alessandro Vespignani and his team at Northeastern's MoBS Lab pulls Twitter mentions of Ebola-related keywords and displays them on an interactive world map - allowing the public to follow the latest news and discussion in real time.
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October 28, 2014
Big Data, innovative research
An interdisciplinary group of Northeastern faculty and students led interactive demos and presentations showcasing their research projects that leverage Big Data at the university's sixth Pop Up Open Lab Experience and Reception on Monday.
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July 28, 2014
3Qs: Global impact of the Ebola outbreak
With the deadly Ebola outbreak continuing, Professor Alessandro Vespignani discusses the spread of infectious diseases.
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November 28, 2013
The potential pandemic
In a recently released paper Alessandro Vespignani and his collaborators provide hard numbers regarding accidental escape of a lethal virus. And they aren't good.
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September 11, 2013
Network scientists lead congressional briefing
Network science has the potential to solve major national challenges in health, security, and sustainability, said two Northeastern University professors in a briefing on Tuesday afternoon in Washington, D.C.
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August 21, 2013
An up-close look at network science
Alessandro Vespignani, a world-renowned expert in network science, was a guest on #sciencechat on Wednesday, August 21, 2013.
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July 17, 2013
Local bioterrorism as a potential global threat
According to a new computer modeling research study from Northeastern University network scientist Alessandro Vespignani, when it comes to bioterrorist attacks, “diseases have no borders.”
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January 7, 2013
Validation for Flu Prediction
As news of the latest outbreak is upon us, Vespignani and his colleagues recently published an article in the journal BMC Medicine that offers definitive proof of a strong agreement between the predictions and the real-life surveillance data collected in 2009.
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December 4, 2012
Northeastern researcher elected president of the Complex Systems Society
The science of complex systems was born in the mid-20th century, but it has only recently begun to mature into a research field with real-world relevance.
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February 1, 2012
Forecasting The Spread Of Emerging Diseases
If we can forecast the path of a hurricane or even the trajectory of a subatomic particle, why shouldn’t we also be able to forecast the spread of an emerging disease? That is the question Alessandro Vespignani, who was installed as Northeastern University’s Sternberg Family Distinguished University Professor of Physics on Tuesday in the Raytheon […]
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October 3, 2011
World-Renowned Statistical Physicist Alessandro Vespignani Is The Weatherman of Network Science
In 2009, the newly appointed Sternberg Family Distinguished University Professor of Physics — with appointments in the College of Science, College of Computer and Information Science and the Bouvé College of Health Sciences — developed a computational model that accurately predicted the spread of the H1N1 virus. Taking a proactive approach to tracking the spread of […]
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