Principal Investigator Lydia Bourouiba
Project Website https://lbourouiba.mit.edu/MITBourouibaCOVID19
The Bourouiba Research Group is actively engaged with colleagues at MIT, Harvard, and local hospitals in understanding and mitigating the transmission of respiratory infectious diseases, including COVID-19. Focusing on the interface of fluid dynamics and epidemiology, the Bourouiba Group, in the Fluid Dynamics of Disease Transmission Laboratory, aims to elucidate the fundamental physical mechanisms shaping the transmission dynamics of pathogens in human, animal, and plant populations where drops, bubbles, multi-phase and complex flows are at the core.
Key topics of research in the Fluid Dynamics of Disease Transmission Laboratory include: (1) Pathogen-Fluid Interaction (*) Interfacial flows: pathogen-fluid interactions in bubbles, drops and films (*) Fluid fragmentation and droplet formation leading to air contamination (*) Turbulence and multiphase flows (*) Mixing, transport, and pathogen deposition and contamination (*) Hydrodynamic instabilities and waves (*) Viscoelastic and biological fluids
(2) Health, Disease Transmission (*) Contact dynamics and pathogen transport (*) Nosocomial diseases, respiratory diseases, waterborne diseases, and foliar diseases (*) Disease transmission and contamination in indoor environments, including hospitals.
The Group uses a combination of theoretical (applied mathematics, including differential equations, linear algebra, nonlinear dynamics, waves and stability) and experimental approaches (flow visualization, high speed imaging techniques, microscopy, image processing) to elucidate the fundamental physical mechanisms of transmission of nosocomial diseases, respiratory diseases, waterborne diseases, and foliar diseases where fluids are ubiquitous and to design and formulate new control strategies.