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He predicted the widespread COVID-19 pandemic early on. Now he’s been knighted by the Italian government.

Alessandro Vespignani has been a leader among the experts advising both the American and Italian COVID-19 pandemic responses. For his work forecasting future outbreaks and connecting the two nations, the director of the Network Science Institute at Northeastern has been knighted by the Italian government.

by Eva Botkin-Kowacki September 27, 2021

Visitors wear face masks while watching a presentation in a theater at the Aquarium of the Pacific on its first day of reopening to public in Long Beach, Calif. on March 16, 2021.

How soon will the COVID-19 pandemic end? It depends.

“It could be a matter of weeks,” says Alessandro Vespignani, whose team has created models projecting possible future outbreaks of COVID-19 in the U.S. for the CDC. But that depends on whether people’s real behavior continues to align with the Northeastern team’s scenarios.

by Eva Botkin-Kowacki May 5, 2021

Sculpture meets science when Albert-László Barabási makes art from network patterns

Albert-László Barabási wanted to be a sculptor. Then he discovered physics and pioneered a new field of network science. Now, the Northeastern professor has art exhibits displaying his work in both Hungary and Germany.

by Eva Botkin-Kowacki April 29, 2021

Developing new disease treatments can take years. That's why Northeastern researcher Deisy Morselli Gysi and her colleagues looked at existing drugs to treat COVID-19. And now they have four strong contenders. Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

Existing drugs may hold the key to curing COVID‑19

Developing new disease treatments can take years. That's why Northeastern researchers looked at existing drugs to treat COVID-19. And now they have four strong contenders.

by Eva Botkin-Kowacki April 28, 2021

Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

Flu season is coming and COVID-19 is still here. Can disease forecasts tell them apart?

Both viruses attack the respiratory system and can have similar symptoms. “Something like this is completely unprecedented,” says Alessandro Vespignani, who directs Northeastern’s Network Science Institute. “Having a major pandemic and then trying to get insight on the seasonal flu—it’s a completely new game.”

by Laura Castañón October 13, 2020

Photo by Ruby Wallau/Northeastern University

Just how much contact tracing and testing do we need?

How much testing is enough? What percentage of people who’ve been unwittingly exposed to the virus do we need to track down? How many people will need to be quarantined? In a recent study published in Nature Human Behaviour, researchers in Northeastern’s Network Science Institute sought to quantify these answers.

by Laura Castañón August 25, 2020

This map shows data on confirmed cases of COVID-19 exclusively collected from publicly-available sources, including government reports and news media. Courtesy of HealthMap. Courtesy of Samuel Scarpino

‘We find ourselves asking scientists to do more than simply study the virus’

As the COVID-19 pandemic evolves, epidemiological models continue to provide vital information for lawmakers, public health officials, and people trying to slow the spread of the coronavirus. This has put the scientists who make the models in the spotlight.

by Laura Castañón July 6, 2020

This map, created by Alessandro Vespignani and his team, predicts the number of infections in different parts of the U.S., assuming

Models can predict how COVID-19 will spread. What goes into them, and how can we use what they tell us?

On Thursday, Joseph E. Aoun, president of Northeastern, will sit down for a conversation with Alessandro Vespignani, the director of Northeastern’s Network Science Institute, who is leading one of the major efforts to model this disease.

by Laura Castañón May 13, 2020

Subway customers wear masks on a crowded car heading downtown, on March 17, 2020, in New York. AP Photo by John Minchillo

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.

by Laura Castañón April 26, 2020

People waiting queue to take a sample for a covid-19 test, on April 23, 2020, in Prague, Czech Republic. Photo by Katerina Sulova CTK via AP Images

Herd immunity won’t come anytime soon for COVID-19

Herd immunity is the idea that a disease can’t spread through a population once a large enough percentage is immune, either because they’ve recovered from an infection or received a vaccine. But that won’t work with SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, said Samuel Scarpino, an assistant professor who runs the Emergent Epidemics lab at Northeastern.

by Laura Castañón April 23, 2020

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