Joseph Mihaljevic

Joseph Mihaljevic serves as Associate Professor at Northern Arizona University's School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems and holds a dual appointment at the Pathogen & Microbiome Institute (PMI). His research integrates computational modeling with public health applications, focusing on infectious disease dynamics across environmental and social contexts.

His primary research domains include infectious disease modeling, microbiome interactions, and health equity, with particular emphasis on climate-disease relationships, spatial transmission patterns, and Arizona-specific health challenges. Methodologically, he combines epidemiological modeling, computational optimization, and microbiome analysis to address complex public health problems.

Recent scholarly output reveals three distinct thematic clusters: (1) climate-disease theory advancements addressing host heterogeneity, (2) pandemic response systems including vaccine supply chain optimization, and (3) Arizona-focused health disparity studies examining infections like Staphylococcus aureus and Valley fever. These works demonstrate strong alignment with both theoretical epidemiology and practical public health implementation.

As Principal Investigator or Co-PI on four major research projects, including the Southwest Health Equity Research Collaborative (SHERC), EpiMoRPH simulation environment, and SSCIMA spatial modeling initiative, he leads cross-disciplinary teams addressing infectious disease challenges through computational and social frameworks.

His laboratory work centers on the Pathogen & Microbiome Institute ecosystem, where he collaborates with environmental scientists, clinicians, and social scientists to investigate host-pathogen-environment interactions using both computational and wet-lab approaches.