Matthew Ferrari

Professor of Biology and CIDD Director
Matt Ferrari.
Matthew
Ferrari
Professor of Biology and CIDD Director
Department Affiliations
External Affiliations
Interests
Ecology
Infectious Disease Dynamics
Theoretical Biology
Computational Biology
Address
Phone
814-865-6080
Website
Ferrari Lab

Biography

Matthew Ferrari is a Professor of Biology at Penn State.

2006 PhD Ecology, Penn State

2002 MSc Statistics 2002, Montana State University

1999 MSc Fisheries and Wildlife Management, Montana State University 

1996 BA in Biology, Colby College 

 

Research Summary 

Vaccines have prevented over 154 million deaths over the last 50 years. Quantifying the direct (to the recipient) and indirect (preventing transmission) effect of vaccination requires integrating data on vaccine distribution, demography, and disease incidence. We use a combination of dynamic transmission models and computational statistics to estimate the incidence of disease and the impact of vaccination, with specific focus on low and lower-middle income settings where data are sparse or limited due to health system access. Over the last two decades we have worked with national and international partners to develop models for measles, rubella, rotavirus, and meningitis in children and foot-and-mouth disease virus in livestock. We then use the resulting models to help governments and NGOs make decisions about vaccination and surveillance strategies. 

 

Selected Publications

Ferrari MJ, Moss WJ. 2025. Rubella and measles: the beginning of the endgame. Science 388(6742): 32-34.

Arnold CRK, Bharti N, Exten C, Small M, Srinivasan S, Kuchipudi S, Kapur S, Ferrari MJ. 2025. Latent class analysis identifies risk groups to model the expected benefits of SARS-CoV-2 interventions among university students. Scientific Reports 15(1): 11199.

Berry T, Ferrari MJ, Sauer T, Greybush SJ, Ebeigbe D, Whalen AJ, Schiff SJ. 2025. Existence and stability of equilibria in infectious disease dynamics with behavioral feedback. Physical Review E 111(1): 014317.

Nakase T, Brownwright T, Okunromade O, Egwuenu A, Ogunbode O, Lawal B, Akanbi K, Grant G, Bassey OO, Coughlin MM, Bankamp B, Adetifa I, Metcalf CJE, Ferrari MJ. 2024. The impact of sub-national heterogeneities in demography and epidemiology on the introduction of rubella vaccination programs in Nigeria. Vaccine.

Sbarra AN, Mosser JF, Jit M, Ferrari MJ, Ramshaw RE, O'Connor P, Krause LK, Rogowsk ELBi, Portnoy A, 2023. Estimating national-level measles case–fatality ratios in low-income and middle-income countries: an updated systematic review and modelling study. The Lancet Global Health 11(4): e516-e524

Herrera-Diestra JL, Tildesley MJ, Shea K, Ferrari MJ. 2022. Cattle transport network predicts endemic and epidemic foot-and-mouth disease risk on farms in Turkey. PLoS Computational Biology 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010354

Howerton E, Ferrari MJ, Bjørnstad ON, Bogich TL, Borchering RK, Jewell CP, Nichols JD, Probert WJM, RungeMC, Tildesley MJ, Viboud C, Shea K. (2021) Synergistic interventions to control COVID-19: mass testing and isolation mitigates reliance on distancing. PLoS Computational Biology. 

Utazi CE, Wagai J, Pannell O, Cutts Felicity T, Rhoda DA, Ferrari MJ, Dieng B, Oteri J, Danovaro-Hilliday MC, Adeniran A, Tatem AJ. 2020. Geospatial variation in measles vaccine coverage through routine and campaign strategies in Nigeria: Analysis of recent household surveys. Vaccine 38(14) 3062-3071

 

Teaching

BIOL 434: The Pathobiology of Emerging Infectious Diseases