My research builds our understanding of how social dynamics and environmental processes can shape infectious disease transmission. This work is divided into three broad themes: (1) exploring how actual behavioral processes can change epidemic outcomes, (2) quantifying how climate change is contributing to outbreak risk, and (3) characterizing attitudes toward scientific and public health measures and building public understanding of health issues. Below, I outline my work across each of these themes.

Infectious disease dynamics and human behavior

During an infectious disease outbreak, people decide whether to adopt protective behaviors that may prevent infection (e.g., vaccination and mask-wearing). Current approaches to incorporating behavior into infectious disease models may be limited in their realism due to assumptions including homogeneous responses across the population and adaptive behavior based on accurate, complete information. I build models to capture how actual behavioral processes, specifically social divisions around adoption of protective behavior coupled with assortativity (i.e., preferential mixing with in-group members), can shape behavioral responses and infectious disease transmission.

Examples of projects in this theme include:

  • Leading a team of behavioral scientists and epidemiologists in a scoping review to identify opportunities to leverage data streams and incorporate insights from behavioral science into models (Harris et al 2026, RSOS)
  • Using modeling and school-based vaccination data to demonstrate that substantial assortativity based on vaccination status has likely reduced the burden of breakthrough measles infections (Harris et al 2026, in review)
  • Building a model to show how behavior based on group-level risk perception can mask the true extent of underlying differences in risk between groups, as the more-vulnerable group preferentially adopts protective measures (Harris et al 2023, Evol Hum Sci)

Climate change and vector-borne disease

Climate change is transforming ecological systems, with important implications for human health. Evidence from vector biology establishes that mosquito-borne disease transmission is sensitive to temperature and precipitation, suggesting that climate change may already be shifting the burden of these diseases. I have analyzed data on recent outbreaks of Zika and dengue to establish how climate factors impact mosquito-borne disease transmission. My work provides some of the first causal estimates for the impact that climate change has already had on a mosquito-borne diseases.

Projects include:

  • Calculating that extreme precipitation during Cyclone Yaku caused 60% of dengue cases across northwestern Peru during the record-breaking 2023 outbreak (Harris et al 2026, One Earth)
  • Estimating that global warming was responsible for 18% of dengue incidence across 21 countries in Asia and the Americas from 1995-2014 (Childs et al 2025, PNAS)
  • Showing that transmission of Zika in Latin America exhibited a nonlinear relationship with temperature (Harris et al 2019, Proc Royal Soc B)

Public health attitudes and behavioral interventions

Amid ongoing erosion of support for public health, people may struggle to identify reliable sources and make sense of complicated scientific data. I help characterize patterns in attitudes toward public health measures such as vaccination, working to identify influential sources of vaccine information. Simultaneously, I contribute to websites that have been used by millions of people to address gaps in public understanding around infectious disease risk and the benefits of scientific research funding.

Projects include:

You can learn more about my dissertation research by checking out this poster or watching this recording of my defense!