Lauren Ancel Meyers is the Cooley Centennial Professor of Integrative Biology and Statistics & Data Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin and a member of the Santa Fe Institute External Faculty. She was trained as a mathematical biologist at Harvard and Stanford Universities and has been a pioneer in the field of network epidemiology and the application of machine learning to improve outbreak detection, forecasting and control.

Professor Meyers leads an interdisciplinary team of scientists, engineers, and public health experts in uncovering the social and biological drivers of epidemics and building practical tools for the CDC and other global health agencies to track and mitigate emerging viral threats, including COVID-19, pandemic influenza, Ebola, HIV, and Zika. Her research has been published in over 100 peer-reviewed articles in major journals and covered by the popular press, including The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, CNN and the BBC. Professor Meyers was named as one of the top 100 global innovators under age 35 by the MIT Technology Review in 2004 and received the Joseph Lieberman Award for Significant Contributions to Science in 2017.

Awards & Fellowships

2018- Denton A. Cooley Centennial Professorship, UT
2017 Joseph Lieberman Award for Significant Contributions to Science
2011-2013, 16-18 William H. and Gladys G. Reeder Faculty Fellow, UT
2006-2010, 14-15 Fellow, University of Texas Institute for Molecular and Cellular Biology
2013 Center for Excellence in Education - Excellence and Achievement Award
2010-2011 Donald D. Harrington Faculty Fellowship, UT
2005 College of Natural Sciences Teaching Excellence Award, University of Texas
2004 MIT Technology Review TR100: One of 100 Top Global Innovators Under 35
2000-2002 National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biological Informatics
2000-2002 Santa Fe Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship
2000 Samuel Karlin Prize for Ph.D Thesis in Mathematical Biology
1999 Steinmetz Fellowship, Santa Fe Institute
1996-1999 National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate Fellowship
1991-1995 U.S. Congressional National Science Scholar