Ottar Bjornstad

Huck Chair of Epidemiology; Distinguished Professor of Entomology and Biology; Adjunct Professor in Statistics

Ottar Bjornstad

Research Summary

Population ecology and population dynamics with particular emphasis on mathematical and computational aspects

Huck Graduate Students

Huck Affiliations

Links

Publication Tags

Pandemics Influenza Temperature Epidemics Population Dynamics Testing Public Health Population Vaccination China Culicidae Coronavirus Human Influenza Immunity Disease Outbreaks Pandemic Humidity Norway Vaccines Infections Incidence Life History Diapause Anopheles Decision Making

Most Recent Papers

An integrated experimental and mathematical approach to inferring the role of food exploitation and interference interactions in shaping life history

Barbara Joncour, William A. Nelson, Damie Pak, Ottar N. Bjørnstad, 2022, Functional Ecology on p. 1098-1112

Incorporating diapause to predict the interannual dynamics of an important agricultural pest

Damie Pak, Spencer Carran, David Biddinger, Bill Nelson, Ottar N. Bjørnstad, 2022, Population Ecology

Prioritizing vaccination by age and social activity to advance societal health benefits in Norway

Ruiyun Li, Ottar N. Bjørnstad, Nils Chr Stenseth, 2021, The Lancet Regional Health - Europe

Synergistic interventions to control COVID-19: Mass testing and isolation mitigates reliance on distancing.

E Howerton, M Ferrari, O Bjørnstad, T Bogich, R Borchering, C Jewell, J Nichols, Probert WJM, M Runge, M Tildesley, C Viboud, K Shea, 2021, PLoS Computational Biology on p. e1009518

A general model for the demographic signatures of the transition from pandemic emergence to endemicity

Ruiyun Li, C. Jessica E. Metcalf, Nils C. Stenseth, Ottar N. Bjørnstad, 2021, Science advances

Switching vaccination among target groups to achieve improved long-lasting benefits

Ruiyun Li, Ottar N. Bjørnstad, Nils Chr Stenseth, 2021, Royal Society Open Science

The ecological dynamics of the coronavirus epidemics during transmission from outside sources when R 0 is successfully managed below one

Steinar Engen, Huaiyu Tian, Ruifu Yang, Ottar N. Bjørnstad, Jason D. Whittington, Nils Chr Stenseth, 2021, Royal Society Open Science

Associations between changes in population mobility in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and socioeconomic factors at the city level in China and country level worldwide

Yonghong Liu, Zengmiao Wang, Benjamin Rader, Bingying Li, Chieh Hsi Wu, Jason D. Whittington, Pai Zheng, Nils Chr Stenseth, Ottar N. Bjornstad, John S. Brownstein, Huaiyu Tian, 2021, The Lancet Digital Health on p. e349-e359

Strategic testing approaches for targeted disease monitoring can be used to inform pandemic decision-making

James D. Nichols, Tiffany L. Bogich, Emily Howerton, Ottar N. Bjørnstad, Rebecca K. Borchering, Matthew Ferrari, Murali Haran, Christopher Jewell, Kim M. Pepin, William J.M. Probert, Juliet R.C. Pulliam, Michael C. Runge, Michael Tildesley, Cecile Viboud, Katriona Shea, 2021, PLoS Biology

Vaccinating children against SARS-CoV-2

Jennie S. Lavine, Ottar Bjornstad, Rustom Antia, 2021, The BMJ

Most-Cited Papers

An investigation of transmission control measures during the first 50 days of the COVID-19 epidemic in China

Huaiyu Tian, Yonghong Liu, Yidan Li, Chieh Hsi Wu, Bin Chen, Moritz U.G. Kraemer, Bingying Li, Jun Cai, Bo Xu, Qiqi Yang, Ben Wang, Peng Yang, Yujun Cui, Yimeng Song, Pai Zheng, Quanyi Wang, Ottar N. Bjornstad, Ruifu Yang, Bryan T. Grenfell, Oliver G. Pybus, Christopher Dye, 2020, Science on p. 638-642

The effect of temperature on Anopheles mosquito population dynamics and the potential for malaria transmission

Lindsay M. Beck-Johnson, William A. Nelson, Krijn P. Paaijmans, Andrew F. Read, Matthew B. Thomas, Ottar N. Bjørnstad, 2013, PLoS One

Urbanization and humidity shape the intensity of influenza epidemics in U.S. cities

Benjamin D. Dalziel, Stephen Kissler, Julia R. Gog, Cecile Viboud, Ottar N. Bjørnstad, C. Jessica E. Metcalf, Bryan T. Grenfell, 2018, Science on p. 75-79

Immunological characteristics govern the transition of COVID-19 to endemicity

Jennie S. Lavine, Ottar N. Bjornstad, Rustom Antia, 2021, Science

Spatial Transmission of 2009 Pandemic Influenza in the US

Julia R. Gog, Sébastien Ballesteros, Cécile Viboud, Lone Simonsen, Ottar N. Bjornstad, Jeffrey Shaman, Dennis L. Chao, Farid Khan, Bryan T. Grenfell, 2014, PLoS Computational Biology

Human mobility and the spatial transmission of influenza in the United States

Vivek Charu, Scott Zeger, Julia Gog, Ottar N. Bjørnstad, Stephen Kissler, Lone Simonsen, Bryan T. Grenfell, Cécile Viboud, 2017, PLoS Computational Biology

The geography of spatial synchrony

Jonathan A. Walter, Lawrence W. Sheppard, Thomas L. Anderson, Jude H. Kastens, Ottar N. Bjørnstad, Andrew M. Liebhold, Daniel C. Reuman, 2017, Ecology Letters on p. 801-814

Recurrent insect outbreaks caused by temperature-driven changes in system stability

William A. Nelson, Ottar N. Bjørnstad, Takehiko Yamanaka, 2013, Science on p. 796-799

Quantifying seasonal population fluxes driving rubella transmission dynamics using mobile phone data

Amy Wesolowski, C. J.E. Metcalf, Nathan Eagle, Janeth Kombich, Bryan T. Grenfell, Ottar N. Bjørnstad, Justin Lessler, Andrew J. Tatem, Caroline O. Buckee, 2015, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America on p. 11114-11119

Climate-driven variation in mosquito density predicts the spatiotemporal dynamics of dengue

Ruiyun Li, Lei Xu, Ottar N. Bjørnstad, Keke Liu, Tie Song, Aifang Chen, Bing Xu, Qiyong Liu, Nils C. Stenseth, 2019, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America on p. 3624-3629

News Articles Featuring Ottar Bjornstad

Aug 23, 2021

Will COVID-19 become a mostly childhood disease?

Within the next few years, as the SARS-CoV-2 virus becomes endemic in the global population, COVID-19 may behave like other common-cold coronaviruses, affecting mostly young children who have not yet been vaccinated or exposed to the virus, according to new modeling results. Because COVID-19 severity is generally lower among children, the overall burden from this disease is expected to decline.

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Aug 12, 2021

Kids may eventually be more at risk of contracting COVID-19 than adults, study finds

Researchers say young children will become more susceptible to the virus over time

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Mar 17, 2021

Ottar Bjørnstad elected to Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters

Ottar N. Bjørnstad, distinguished professor of entomology and biology and J. Lloyd & Dorothy Foehr Huck Chair of Epidemiology at Penn State, has been elected to the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters. Bjørnstad was recommended as a result of his significant contributions to the fields of population ecology and quantitative epidemiology.

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Mar 09, 2021

Another common cold virus?

If it becomes endemic — circulating in the general population — and most people are exposed in childhood, SARS-CoV-2 may join the ranks of mild cold-causing coronaviruses that currently circulate in humans.

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Jan 14, 2021

Coronavirus updates: COVID-19 reduces US life expectancy; Biden introduces spending plan; Pope Francis gets Pfizer vaccine

USA TODAY is keeping track of the news surrounding COVID-19 as a pair of vaccines join the U.S. fight against a virus that has killed nearly 385,000 Americans since the first reported fatality in February.

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Apr 24, 2020

Two Great Valley professors awarded seed grants for COVID-19 research

Despite being limited to virtual interactions and meetings, Penn State Great Valley faculty continue to conduct innovative research. Ashkan Negahban, assistant professor of engineering management, and Satish Srinivasan, assistant professor of information science, were awarded seed grants to fund projects to help address the COVID-19 crisis.

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Apr 19, 2020

Coronavirus: How CDC Lab Contamination, And A Failure To Cooperate Globally, Led To Catastrophe

By the time the WHO chief made the above remarks, it had been almost two months since the US had identified its first case of COVID-19, the illness caused by novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.

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Apr 06, 2020

Efforts to control livestock disease should focus on management style, not age

The risk of transmitting the virus PPRV, which produces a highly infectious and often fatal disease in sheep and goats, does not appear to vary significantly by an animal’s age, unlike its sibling virus measles, which is most prominent in children.

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Mar 31, 2020

China’s control measures may have prevented 700,000 COVID-19 cases

China’s control measures during the first 50 days of the COVID-19 epidemic may have delayed the spread of the virus to cities outside of Wuhan by several days and, by interrupting transmission nationwide, prevented more than 700,000 infections across the country, according to an international team of researchers.

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Jan 09, 2020

The Virus Buried in a 100-Year-Old Lung

Scientists have managed to sequence the genome of a measles virus that infected a 2-year-old girl who died in 1912.

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