Congratulations to Zack Almquist on NSF RAPID Award for COVID-19 Research!

Posted: 4/27/2020 (CSDE Awards and CSDE Research)

One of CSDE’s newest affiliates Zack Almquist and his colleagues were just awarded an NSF RAPID grant titled “Coupled Contagion, Behavior-Change, and the Dynamics of Pro- and Anti-Social Behavior During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Almquist with colleagues from Stanford, Simon Fraser University, UC-Merced and UC-Davis will pursue a longitudinal study through probability sample of Americans in three waves, assessing risk-reduction behaviors, compliance with public-health mandates, and hypothesized predictors of response including trust in various institutions, social capital, and sources of news and information.

They will construct mathematical and simulation-based models that jointly track the dynamics of virus transmission and change in behavior, which they will parameterize with data collected through the survey. These models may provide insights for improving public-health interventions, motivating compliance, and stemming the spread of misinformation regarding the epidemic.