Nita Bharti

Huck Early Career Professor; Assistant Professor of Biology

Nita Bharti

Research Summary

The underlying mechanisms for spatial heterogeneities in host disease burden and risk across spatial scales, from regional dynamics to seasonal outbreaks in cities, rural villages, and across borders by assessing regional variations in movement and contact patterns relating to outbreaks and access to health care.

Huck Affiliations

Links

Publication Tags

Niger Satellite Imagery Fluctuations Nigeria Population Density Population Vaccination Measles Population Dynamics Immunization Light Public Health Health Rubella Markov Chains Epidemiology Imagery (Psychotherapy) Imagery Lighting Immunization Programs Information Storage And Retrieval Mexico Fluctuation Health Services Needs And Demand Cote D'ivoire

Most Recent Papers

Investigating persistent measles dynamics in Niger and associations with rainfall

Alexandre Blake, Ali Djibo, Ousmane Guindo, Nita Bharti, 2020, Journal of the Royal Society Interface

Fluctuations in anthropogenic nighttime lights from satellite imagery for five cities in Niger and Nigeria

Nita Bharti, Andrew J. Tatem, 2018, Scientific Data

Measuring populations to improve vaccination coverage

Nita Bharti, Ali Djibo, Andrew J. Tatem, Bryan T. Grenfell, Matthew J. Ferrari, 2016, Scientific reports

Remotely measuring populations during a crisis by overlaying two data sources

Nita Bharti, Xin Lu, Linus Bengtsson, Erik Wetter, Andrew J. Tatem, 2015, International health on p. 90-98

The importance of movement in environmental change and infectious disease

Nita Bharti, 2014, Forum on Microbial Threats on p. 11

Ebola: mobility data

M Halloran, Alessandro Vespignani, Nita Bharti, Leora Feldstein, KA Alexander, Matthew Ferrari, Jeffrey Shaman, John Drake, Travis Porco, Joseph Eisenberg, others, 2014, Science on p. 433--433

Approaching the limit of predictability in human mobility

Xin Lu, Erik Wetter, Nita Bharti, Andrew J. Tatem, Linus Bengtsson, 2013, Scientific reports

Mapping populations at risk: improving spatial demographic data for infectious disease modeling and metric derivation

A.J. Tatem, S. Adamo, Nita Bharti, C.R. Burgert, M.C. Castro, A. Dorelien, G. Fink, C. Linard, J. Mendelson, Livia Montana, M.R. Montgomery, Anthony Nelson, A.M. Noor, D. Pindolia, G. Yetman, D. Balk, 2012, Population Health Metrics on p. 1-14

Explaining seasonal fluctuations of measles in Niger using nighttime lights imagery

Nita Bharti, A. J. Tatem, Matthew Joseph Ferrari, R. F. Grais, A. Djibo, B. T. Grenfell, 2011, Science on p. 1424-1427

The epidemiology of rubella in Mexico

C. J.E. Metcalf, O. N. Bjørnstad, M. J. Ferrari, P. Klepac, N. Bharti, H. Lopez-Gatell, B. T. Grenfell, 2011, Epidemiology and Infection on p. 1029-1038

Most-Cited Papers

Approaching the limit of predictability in human mobility

Xin Lu, Erik Wetter, Nita Bharti, Andrew J. Tatem, Linus Bengtsson, 2013, Scientific reports

Explaining seasonal fluctuations of measles in Niger using nighttime lights imagery

Nita Bharti, A. J. Tatem, Matthew Joseph Ferrari, R. F. Grais, A. Djibo, B. T. Grenfell, 2011, Science on p. 1424-1427

The epidemiology of rubella in Mexico

C. J.E. Metcalf, O. N. Bjørnstad, M. J. Ferrari, P. Klepac, N. Bharti, H. Lopez-Gatell, B. T. Grenfell, 2011, Epidemiology and Infection on p. 1029-1038

Remotely measuring populations during a crisis by overlaying two data sources

Nita Bharti, Xin Lu, Linus Bengtsson, Erik Wetter, Andrew J. Tatem, 2015, International health on p. 90-98

Measuring populations to improve vaccination coverage

Nita Bharti, Ali Djibo, Andrew J. Tatem, Bryan T. Grenfell, Matthew J. Ferrari, 2016, Scientific reports

Fluctuations in anthropogenic nighttime lights from satellite imagery for five cities in Niger and Nigeria

Nita Bharti, Andrew J. Tatem, 2018, Scientific Data

Investigating persistent measles dynamics in Niger and associations with rainfall

Alexandre Blake, Ali Djibo, Ousmane Guindo, Nita Bharti, 2020, Journal of the Royal Society Interface

Ebola: mobility data

M Halloran, Alessandro Vespignani, Nita Bharti, Leora Feldstein, KA Alexander, Matthew Ferrari, Jeffrey Shaman, John Drake, Travis Porco, Joseph Eisenberg, others, 2014, Science on p. 433--433

The importance of movement in environmental change and infectious disease

Nita Bharti, 2014, Forum on Microbial Threats on p. 11

Mapping populations at risk: improving spatial demographic data for infectious disease modeling and metric derivation

A.J. Tatem, S. Adamo, Nita Bharti, C.R. Burgert, M.C. Castro, A. Dorelien, G. Fink, C. Linard, J. Mendelson, Livia Montana, M.R. Montgomery, Anthony Nelson, A.M. Noor, D. Pindolia, G. Yetman, D. Balk, 2012, Population Health Metrics on p. 1-14

News Articles Featuring Nita Bharti

Dec 21, 2020

Can the NBA win its rematch with COVID-19?

As the pandemic wreaks havoc on the NCAA and NFL, the 2020-21 NBA season offers new hopes and fears

Full Article

Oct 30, 2020

Football is back in Happy Valley. The Coronavirus never left.

Not quite a mile form Beaver Stadium, there's an off-the-grid building encircled by a tall metal fence. Surrounded by fields, unmarked on maps, it looks like a tiny jail north of the Penn State campus. The gate is locked.

Full Article

Oct 16, 2020

Heading down to the Linc Sunday for the Ravens-Eagles game? Here’s what you need to know

So you’re an Eagles season ticket holder who opted in for 2020, instead of deferring for a year, and then you secured a “pod” of two to six tickets to Sunday’s game against the Baltimore Ravens — the first game this season in which fans will be allowed at Lincoln Financial Field. What can you expect?

Full Article

Sep 09, 2020

The NFL expects to play a full season despite coronavirus concerns

Training camp amid the pandemic went better than even some of the most optimistic NFL observers would have predicted, with the league’s COVID-19 reserve list dwindling steadily from 66 players at the end of July to fewer than half a dozen as the week of the season openers arrived.

Full Article

Aug 25, 2020

Measles outbreaks in Niger linked to rainfall and temperature, study finds

Rainfall and temperature drive agricultural activity, which, in turn, influences patterns of measles outbreaks in the West African nation of Niger, according to an international team of researchers. The findings may be useful for improving vaccine coverage for seasonally mobile populations within Niger and other countries.

Full Article

Aug 25, 2020

Faculty funded to study how people's movement impacts COVID-19 transmission

Nita Bharti, Lloyd Huck Early Career Professor and assistant professor of biology at Penn State, and her collaborator Anthony Robinson, associate professor of geography at Penn State, have been awarded seed funding from the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences at Penn State to study how monitoring the movement of people can potentially be used as a predictor or early indicator of COVID-19 transmission and guide health policy decisions.

Full Article

Jul 26, 2020

Penn State is about to turn Centre County into a massive coronavirus research project

Tens of thousands of students are scheduled to return to Penn State’s main campus in central Pennsylvania next month, swelling its host county’s population by more than a third. And during a historic public health crisis, that’s a research opportunity.

Full Article

Jul 14, 2020

Huck Institutes tackles pandemic with true 'We Are' spirit

For faculty, staff and administrators working across Penn State’s Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts is more than an abstraction. It’s an everyday reality.

Full Article

Jul 08, 2020

Researchers gauge the effect of protests and reopenings on reviving the pandemic

Epidemiologists say the crowding conditions associated with mass protests over police violence seem likely to add dozens of people, or perhaps even hundreds, to the daily death toll from coronavirus infections. But they acknowledge that these sorts of assessments involve a tradeoff between public health and social justice.

Full Article

Jul 01, 2020

Politicians, scientists back masks: They work

Political leaders are increasingly embracing recommendations from scientists and public health experts that face masks can drastically slow transmission of the coronavirus, even as many right-wing commentators scorn their use.

Full Article