Rate My Professor Folashade Agusto

Folashade B. Agusto is an associate professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Kansas. As a trained applied mathematician, she specializes in developing novel mathematical models to investigate emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases of public health importance and strategies for mitigating their risks. Her research explores the impacts of human behavior on disease transmission and risk, as well as the evolutionary implications of host-pathogen interactions. Specific diseases addressed in her models include Ebola, avian influenza, bovine tuberculosis, Johne's disease, Toxoplasma gondii, Chikungunya, COVID-19, Lyme disease, and malaria. Agusto directs The Agusto Lab, which emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches combining mathematical modeling and computational analysis.

Agusto has secured grants from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense, including funding for projects on arthropod-borne diseases and COVID-19 transmission dynamics influenced by human behavior and lockdowns. She received the University of Kansas COVID Research Pivot Award for redirecting her expertise to pandemic-related modeling. Her publications appear in prominent journals such as PLOS One, Journal of Theoretical Biology, PeerJ, AIMS Mathematics, Infectious Disease Modelling, and PLOS Computational Biology. Notable works include "Understanding U.S. Mental Health Trends during the COVID-19 Pandemic using Network Analysis" (2023), "Assessing the Relative Impacts of COVID-19 and Social Isolation on Anxiety and Depression Across Two Time Periods in the United States" (2023), "Impact of public perception on the transmission of COVID-19 across geographical gradients" (2023), "Optimal impulse control of West Nile virus" (2022), "Managing disease outbreaks: The importance of vector mobility and spatially heterogeneous control" (2020), and "Optimal Control and Temperature Variations of Malaria Transmission Dynamics" (2020). With 2,511 Google Scholar citations, an h-index of 26, and an i10-index of 44, her contributions significantly influence mathematical biology and epidemiology. Agusto has presented plenary and invited lectures, including at the Computational and Mathematical Population Dynamics conference in 2023 and the SMBEpi-PDEE Subgroups Mini-Conference in 2023.