Rebecca Borchering, PhD

Rebecca Borchering, PhD

Associate Director

Postdoctoral researcher, the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences
The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA

PhD in Mathematics, University of Florida (2017)
MS in Mathematics, University of Florida (2014)
BS in Mathematics, Arizona State University (2011)
BA in Philosophy, Arizona State University (2011)

About: Rebecca is a postdoctoral researcher in the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences at the Pennsylvania State University. She earned a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Florida in May 2017, focusing on stochastic processes of invasion and extinction, with particular applications for seasonal rabies virus dynamics. She previously held postdoctoral positions at the Emerging Pathogens Institute and Department of Biology at the University of Florida and at the Odum School of Ecology at the University of Georgia. Her research interests center around infectious disease modeling and public health applications. She is interested in the dynamics of co-circulating pathogens and her previous work includes investigating the effects of the 2015/2016 Zika epidemic in Latin America on endemic dengue dynamics and the emergence of novel influenza B viruses in the United States. Currently, she helps lead multi-model efforts to inform decision support in the face of uncertainty during the COVID-19 pandemic. She works on both the Multiple Models for Outbreak Decision Support (MMODS) and the COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub projects.

Selected publications:

Borchering, Bellan, Flynn, Pulliam, McKinley. (2017) Resource-driven encounters and the induction of disease among consumers. Journal of the Royal Society Interface

Borchering, McKinley. (2018) Continuum Approximation of Invasion Probabilities. Multiscale Modeling & Simulation

Borchering, Huang, Mier-y-Teran-Romero, Rojas, Rodriguez-Barraquer, Katzelnick, Martinez, King, Cinkovich, Lessler, Cummings. (2019) Impacts of Zika emergence in Latin America on endemic dengue transmission. Nature Communications

Shea, Borchering, Probert, Howerton, Bogich, Li, van Panhuis et al. (2020) COVID-19 reopening strategies at the county level in the face of uncertainty - multiple models for outbreak decision support. medRxiv

Borchering, Gunning, Gokhale, Weedop, Saidpour, Brett, Rohani. (2021) Anomalous influenza seasonality in the United States and the emergence of novel influenza B/Victoria viruses. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Borchering, Viboud, Howerton, Smith, Truelove, Reich et al. (2021) Modeling of future COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, by vaccination rates and nonpharmaceutical intervention scenarios — United States, April–September 2021. MMWR