C. Brandon Ogbunu

C. Brandon Ogbunu is an Associate Professor (Tenured) in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University and a Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. His interdisciplinary research examines context dependence across molecular evolution, epidemiology, and science-culture interactions within complex biological and social systems.

His core research areas include evolutionary biology (focusing on epistasis and genotype-phenotype dynamics), epidemiology (modeling multi-route disease transmission and symptom-transmission relationships), and complex systems (analyzing how social stressors like pandemics reveal hidden structures in systems such as the U.S. prison system). He integrates evolutionary game theory, data science, and theoretical frameworks to challenge simplistic narratives in genetics and disease modeling.

Ogbunu leads the Ogbunu Lab at Yale—a highly interactive research program connecting evolutionary theory, epidemiology, and complex systems science. The lab emphasizes developing new methodologies to understand multifactorial influences on biological and social phenomena, with strong advocacy for scientists engaging public communication and real-world applications of theoretical work.