Wouter Van den Broeck

Wouter Van den Broeck is a Research Fellow at the ISI Foundation in Turin, Italy, specializing in the intersection of network science, computational social science, and epidemiology.

His research focuses on:

• Empirical analysis of human contact networks using wearable sensor technology
• Computational modeling of infectious disease transmission dynamics
• Development of tools for epidemic forecasting and public health intervention

From 2009 to 2013, Dr. Van den Broeck published 15 influential papers that established new methodologies for measuring face-to-face interactions in real-world settings (schools, hospitals, conferences) and applying this data to model pandemic influenza spread. His work during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic provided critical insights for resource allocation and intervention strategies through spatially structured epidemic models and global simulation tools like GLEaMviz.

He has collaborated extensively with leading researchers including Alain Barrat, Ciro Cattuto, and Alessandro Vespignani across multiple high-impact publications in journals such as PLoS ONE, BMC Medicine, and EPJ Special Topics, demonstrating consistent contributions to understanding how network structures influence disease transmission.