Faculty Profile

Jon Zelner, PhD

Associate Professor, Epidemiology

Courses Taught Courses Taught
Graduation Cap: Google Scholar
Book: Michigan Research Experts
Website: Research group website

Jon Zelner is an infectious disease epidemiologist whose research is focused on the intersection of social and biological mechanisms in spatiotemporal patterning of infectious disease transmission. His work covers a broad range of infections with a primary focus on respiratory infections including influenza, SARS-CoV-2 and Tuberculosis as well as vaccine-preventible diseases, diarrheal disease, and environmentally-mediated infections such as coccidioidomycosis.

PhD (Sociology and Public Policy), University of Michigan, 2011
MSW (Health and Social Development), Washington University in St. Louis, 2005
BA (Sociology), Haverford College, 2003

Research Interests:
Infectious disease, spatial analysis, transmission modeling, social epidemiology, inequality

Research Projects:
Dr. Zelner's research group has a number of ongoing projects examining the drivers of inequality in infection and mortality from COVID-19 in Michigan. These projects use a number of data sources and analytic approaches including spatial regression and transmission modeling,

A significant focus of our work is on understanding the household- and community-based transmission of influenza and SARS-CoV-2 and the impact of vaccination and non-pharmaceutical interventions on the transmission of these and other viral respiratory infections.

We have a number of ongoing collaborative projects examining the molecular epidemiology of Methicillin-resistant Staph. Aureus (MRSA) and the relationship between community-acquired and institutionally-acquired (jails, prisons, hospitals, long-term care facilities) MRSA infection.

Other ongoing projects include a spatial analysis of the environmental drivers of coccidioidomycosis (Valley Fever) infection in California and the molecular epidemiology of hospital-acquired infections including Carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae.

Email: jzelner@umich.edu

For media inquiries: sph.media@umich.edu

Areas of Expertise: Biostatistics, COVID-19, Health Equity, Infectious Disease, Modeling