EXPERT DIRECTORY

NYU Abu Dhabi has a wide range of expert spokespeople who can comment on themes pertaining to the emergence of COVID-19 and the consequences it continues to trigger from a scientific, psychological, academic, and economic perspective. If there are topics of interest not listed here, please contact nyuad.public.affairs@nyu.edu. 

Human Behavior During a Pandemic

Ernesto Reuben, associate professor of economics, specializes in social and anti-social behavior and the response of societies regarding public policy.

Nikos Nikiforakis, professor of economics, focuses on behavioral and public economics and investigating factors that impact cooperation in societies.

Marc Josef Witte, postdoctoral associate, specializes in labor and development economics. Involved in global study analyzing data on how citizens prepare and cope with coronavirus.

Jocelyn J. Bélanger, assistant professor of psychology, focuses on the dynamic and complex world of human motivation.

Bryan Waterman, associate professor of literature, vice provost for undergraduate academic development, teaches about how the history of plague literature demonstrates that the language we use to talk about certain situations has a material impact on how we treat one another and the kinds of public health policies we imagine.  

Robert Kubinec, assistant professor of political science, studies the influence of powerful business interests on policy outcomes in developing countries. Can discuss human behavior during a pandemic.

Remote Learning, Teaching, and Working During COVID-19

Nancy W Gleason, associate professor of practice of political science, and Director for the Hilary Ballon Center for Teaching and Learning. Specializes in pedagogy of liberal arts education which transfers interdisciplinary competencies for a digital economy. Can discuss education during social distancing.

Impact on the Economy

Jean Imbs, Global Network Professor of Economics, focuses on international macroeconomics, with an interest in the consequences of microeconomic complexity for macroeconomic phenomena. Available for comment on governments' response to coronavirus.

Etienne Wasmer, professor of economics, focuses on labor economics, macroeconomics, search theory and urban economics.

COVID-19: from a Scientific Perspective

Youssef Idaghdour, assistant professor of biology, researches the role genetic and environmental factors play in shaping health-related phenotypes and how interactions between these effects trigger disease.

Hala Fahs, senior research scientist at NYU Abu Dhabi’s Chemical Genomics Laboratory, focuses on screening large libraries of chemical and biological reagents in whole animals for bioactive compound discovery.

Alberto Gandolfi, professor of practice in mathematics, focuses mainly on the application of probability to models in statistical mechanics. He is working on a worldwide statistical analysis of COVID-19 mortality rates to more accurately depict the amount of deaths occurring from the disease.

Timothy Dore, associate professor of chemistry, researches the interface of chemistry and biology, creating new technology to study complex biological systems, especially the brain.He is looking at ways to build broad-spectrum anti-virals that would target the virus that causes COVID-19.

Francesco Paparella, associate professor of mathematics, researches developing and studying mathematical models for geophysical fluids and Earth-systems processes. Currently writing a blog analyzing the statistical model for coronavirus cases and the death rate in Italy.

Partisanship Gap in Beliefs about COVID-19

Melina Platas, assistant professor of political science, focuses on comparative political and human development.  She is now working on a project that looks at knowledge and behavior regarding COVID19 in developing countries, and specifically sub-Saharan Africa.