Nita Bharti

Huck Early Career Professor; Associate Professor of Biology

Nita Bharti

Research Summary

The Bharti lab investigates the underlying links between humans, pathogens, and the environment. We work to identify the mechanisms that give rise to heterogeneities in host disease burden and risk across scales, across spatial and temporal scales. We study the dynamics of host-environment interactions that drive movement and contact patterns as they relate to to pathogen transmission and access to health care.

Huck Graduate Students

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Publication Tags

These publication tags are generated from the output of this researcher. Click any tag below to view other Huck researchers working on the same topic.

Population Climate Change Students Ecology Satellite Imagery Antibodies Winter Viruses Virus Niger Vegetation Chiroptera Coronavirus Information Storage And Retrieval History Nigeria Hendra Henipavirus Fluctuations Sars Virus Habitat Vaccination Human Population Accidental Falls Masks Population Dynamics

Most Recent Publications

Alexandre Blake, Adam Walder, E Hanks, Placide Welo, Francisco Luquero, Didier Bompangue, Nita Bharti, 2023, medRxiv on p. 2023--12

Alexandria Gonzalez, Behnam Nikparvar, M Matson, Stephanie Seifert, H Ross, Vinent Munster, Nita Bharti, 2023, medRxiv on p. 2023--12

Christina L. Faust, Adrian A. Castellanos, Alison J. Peel, Peggy Eby, Raina K. Plowright, Barbara A. Han, Nita Bharti, 2023, Journal of Applied Ecology on p. 1457-1467

Alexandre Blake, Ashley Hazel, John Jakurama, Justy Matundu, Nita Bharti, 2023, Plos Digital Health

Kelsee Baranowski, Nita Bharti, 2023, Landscape Ecology on p. 1605-1618

Nita Bharti, Brian Lambert, Cara Exten, Christina Faust, Matthew Ferrari, Anthony Robinson, 2022, Scientific Reports

Zengmiao Wang, Peiyi Wu, Jingyuan Wang, José Lourenço, Bingying Li, Benjamin Rader, Marko Laine, Hui Miao, Ligui Wang, Hongbin Song, Nita Bharti, John S. Brownstein, Ottar N. Bjornstad, Christopher Dye, Huaiyu Tian, 2022, Journal of the Royal Society Interface

Manuel Ruiz-Aravena, Clifton McKee, Amandine Gamble, Tamika Lunn, Aaron Morris, Celine E. Snedden, Claude Kwe Yinda, Julia R. Port, David W. Buchholz, Yao Yu Yeo, Christina Faust, Elinor Jax, Lauren Dee, Devin N. Jones, Maureen K. Kessler, Caylee Falvo, Daniel Crowley, Nita Bharti, Cara E. Brook, Hector C. Aguilar, Alison J. Peel, Olivier Restif, Tony Schountz, Colin R. Parrish, Emily S. Gurley, James O. Lloyd-Smith, Peter J. Hudson, Vincent J. Munster, Raina K. Plowright, 2022, Nature Reviews Microbiology on p. 315

COVID-19 Mitigation Among College Students: Social Influences, Behavioral Spillover, and Antibody Results

Rachel Smith, Meg Small, Nita Bharti, Samuel DeMatte, Robert P. Lennon, Matthew Ferrari, Data4Action Research Group, 2022, Health Communication on p. 1--10

Callum R.K. Arnold, Sreenidhi Srinivasan, Sophie Rodriguez, Natalie Rydzak, Catherine M. Herzog, Abhinay Gontu, Nita Bharti, Meg Small, Connie J. Rogers, Margeaux M. Schade, Suresh V. Kuchipudi, Vivek Kapur, Andrew F. Read, Matthew J. Ferrari, 2022, Scientific Reports on p. 8586

Most-Cited Papers

Manuel Ruiz-Aravena, Clifton McKee, Amandine Gamble, Tamika Lunn, Aaron Morris, Celine E. Snedden, Claude Kwe Yinda, Julia R. Port, David Buchholz, Yao Yu Yeo, Christina Faust, Elinor Jax, Lauren Dee, Devin N. Jones, Maureen K. Kessler, Caylee Falvo, Daniel Crowley, Nita Bharti, Cara E. Brook, Hector C. Aguilar, Alison J. Peel, Olivier Restif, Tony Schountz, Colin R. Parrish, Emily S. Gurley, James O. Lloyd-Smith, Peter J. Hudson, Vincent J. Munster, Raina K. Plowright, 2021, Nature Reviews Microbiology on p. 299-314

M. Elizabeth Halloran, Alessandro Vespignani, Nita Bharti, Leora R. Feldstein, K. A. Alexander, Matthew Ferrari, Jeffrey Shaman, John M. Drake, Travis Porco, Joseph N.S. Eisenberg, Sara Y. Del Valle, Eric Lofgren, Samuel V. Scarpino, Marisa C. Eisenberg, Daozhou Gao, James M. Hyman, Stephen Eubank, Ira M. Longini, 2014, Science on p. 433

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

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

Tejas S. Athni, Marta S. Shocket, Lisa I. Couper, Nicole Nova, Iain R. Caldwell, Jamie M. Caldwell, Jasmine N. Childress, Marissa L. Childs, Giulio A. De Leo, Devin G. Kirk, Andrew J. MacDonald, Kathryn Olivarius, David G. Pickel, Steven O. Roberts, Olivia C. Winokur, Hillary S. Young, Julian Cheng, Elizabeth A. Grant, Patrick M. Kurzner, Saw Kyaw, Bradford J. Lin, Ricardo C. Lopez, Diba S. Massihpour, Erica C. Olsen, Maggie Roache, Angie Ruiz, Emily A. Schultz, Muskan Shafat, Rebecca L. Spencer, Nita Bharti, Erin A. Mordecai, 2021, Ecology Letters on p. 829-846

Opportunities and constraints in women's resource security amid climate change: A case study of arid-living Namibian agro-pastoralists

Ashley Hazel, Gillian Meeks, Nita Bharti, John Jakurama, Justy Matundu, James Holland Jones, 2021, American Journal of Human Biology

Nita Bharti, 2021, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

K. Baranowski, C. L. Faust, P. Eby, N. Bharti, 2021, Global Ecology and Conservation

Yun Tao, Jessica L. Hite, Kevin D. Lafferty, David J.D. Earn, Nita Bharti, 2021, Theoretical Ecology on p. 625-640

News Articles Featuring Nita Bharti

Mobile phone data used for public health underrepresent vulnerable populations

Mobile phone data are increasingly used in public health management and disease outbreak response, as demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic when location data were used as a proxy for human movement and contacts.

Penn State announces tenure-line faculty promotions, effective July 1, 2023

The following is a list of academic promotions for tenured and tenure-line faculty members at Penn State, effective July 1, 2023.

Penn State team awarded $2.3M to assess disease vulnerability, improve response

An interdisciplinary team from Penn State has been awarded $2.3M from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation’s joint Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Disease (EEID) program to evaluate the vulnerability of certain populations to disease outbreaks, with the goal of improving outbreak response and preventing future outbreaks.

Nita Bharti to deliver 2022 Darwin Day Lecture

Nita Bharti, Penn State assistant professor of biology, will deliver a virtual lecture titled “Adaptation for Survival: Humans and Their Pathogens” at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 10, as part of Penn State’s 2022 Darwin Day celebration. Advance registration is required for the event, which is open to the public.

Researchers use satellites to monitor bat habitat and study virus spillover

Over the last year and a half, the word "remote" has come to dominate a large portion of our collective consciousness. We’ve had to work remotely, learn remotely, and even socialize remotely. But before the pandemic, because of the nature of their research, remote was already a part of the daily lexicon of some Penn State researchers.

Sports Leagues Are Showing Us Just How Bad Omicron Could Get

Even some of the healthiest and most highly vaccinated communities in the country are being ravaged by the new variant.

Traffic and mobile phone data predict COVID case counts in rural Pennsylvania

How much people moved around town predicted COVID-19 cases in a rural Pennsylvania county in 2020, according to a new study by researchers at Penn State.

Australian megafires burn critical habitat of 'Vulnerable' virus-harboring bats

The severe megafires that occurred in eastern Australia during 2019-20 were much larger and more concentrated across the landscape than in previous years, according to a study by researchers at Penn State and the University of New South Wales. The unprecedented fires included the burning of 34% of the foraging habitat of grey-headed flying foxes, which are known to transmit deadly Lyssa and Hendra viruses.

Behavior limits COVID-19 spread between University and community

When universities across the U.S. opted to return students to campus for in-person learning during the coronavirus pandemic in the fall of 2020, surrounding communities were understandably concerned that COVID-19 infections rates would significantly increase. In response, several Penn State researchers formed the Centre County COVID-19 Data 4 Action Project (D4A) to conduct anonymous surveys and biological testing for nonstudent residents and Penn State students to document the social and economic impacts of the pandemic in one community.

Vector-borne diseases shaped human history and reveal race disparities

Vector-borne diseases (VBDs), such as plague, malaria and yellow fever, have significantly shaped society and culture, according to an international team of researchers. In a study published in Ecology Letters on Jan. 27, the team used historical evidence interpreted through an ecological lens to illustrate how VBDs have influenced human history, with particular attention to how VBDs have reinforced and exacerbated racism.