NYU Abu Dhabi Researchers Respond to COVID-19

Abu Dhabi, UAE, April 9, 2020:   NYU Abu Dhabi’s (NYUAD) global community of researchers and faculty are responding to the unique challenges posed by COVID-19.  

 

From social and economic to physiological and scientific disciplines, researchers are initiating projects specifically aimed at tackling the pandemic. For more information about the faculty experts and their ongoing research projects, please visit NYUAD COVID-19: A Call to Action.

 

Researchers and faculty experts are available to provide context on a wide range of topics related to COVID-19; some of these include:

 

Human behavior during a pandemic

 

● Assistant Professor of Psychology Jocelyn J. Bélanger

○ Bélanger focuses on the dynamic and complex world of human motivation. He is currently working with 100 collaborators on five continents to identify psychological and cultural factors relevant to the spread of COVID-19 and its effect on societies. 

● Assistant Professor of Political Science Robert Kubinec

○ Kubinec is part of an international team of researchers working on identifying and collecting government policies in response to the spread of COVID-19. As one of the principal investigators of CoronaNet, Kubinec, together with colleagues from the NYUAD and the Technical University of Munich, are compiling a data set on government actions taken towards defeating the novel coronavirus. 

● Postdoctoral Associate Marc Josef Witte

○ Witte is a labour and development economist. He is currently part of an international group of researchers from leading institutions in the world investigating how social norms about the Coronavirus outbreak are changing over time across more than 100+ countries and 50+ languages. 

 

COVID-19 from a scientific perspective

● Professor of Mathematics Alberto Gandolfi 

○ Gandolfi 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. 

● Assistant Professor of Biology Youssef Idaghdour

○ Idaghdour’s research focuses on the role genetic and environmental factors play in shaping health-related phenotypes and how interactions between these effects trigger disease and modulate its outcome. One of the main focus areas of his research program is immune response and genetics of infectious disease. 

● Senior Research Scientist at NYUAD’s Chemical Genomics Laboratory Hala Fahs

○ Fahs participated in the establishment of an automated high-throughput drug screening platform at the Laboratory.  Her work focuses on screening large libraries of chemical and biological reagents in whole animals for bioactive compound discovery, toxicity studies, and cell biology research. 

 

Remote learning, teaching, and working during COVID-19: Pros, cons, and impact, and the fourth industrial revolution and the future 

● Associate Professor of Practice, Political Science, and Director for the Hilary Ballon Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning Nancy Gleason

○ Gleason conducts research on the future of work and the fourth industrial revolution. In her role she guides faculty in the pedagogy of liberal arts education which transfers interdisciplinary competencies for a digital economy, such as critical thinking and creativity.

 

Impact on the economy

● Global Network Professor of Economics Jean Imbs 

○ Imbs’ research focuses on international macroeconomics, with an interest in the consequences of microeconomic complexity for macroeconomic phenomena. He currently works on the emergence of hubs in the global supply chain and their consequences on world-wide volatility and contagion.

● Professor of Economics Etienne Wasmer

○ Wasmer’s research interest lies in labor economics, macroeconomics, search theory, and urban economics. He published in the American Economic Review, the Journal of Monetary Economics, the Journal of Urban Economics, the American Economic Association Journal: Macroeconomics, among others. 

 

Partisanship gap in beliefs about COVID-19

● Assistant Professor of Political Science Melina Platas

○ Platas has provided analysis on US government polls that shows how Republicans’ and Democrats’ trust of the US President impacts their perception of COVID-19’s threat to public life. Much of Platas’ work involves large-scale field experiments to study political behavior and local governance in developing countries. 

Mental health 

● Counseling Team Leader Vedrana Mladina

○ Mladina is a licensed clinical and health psychologist in Austria with the Austrian Ministry of Health and in the UAE with the The Department of Health-Abu Dhabi. Her areas of expertise span from anxiety, depression, and adjustment disorders, to stress management and burnout.