Top Stories

Exploring Predictions of Epidemics and Crop Yields for IRI and NASA

Last spring, NASA designated the International Research Institute for Climate and Society an official DEVELOP center. The mission of DEVELOP is to connect the vast assemblage of data gathered by NASA’s Earth-orbiting satellites with young researchers interested in working on pressing societal problems. Eight master’s students and recent graduates have completed or are completing internships at IRI through the program. They’ve used NASA’s eyes in space to research topics including disease epidemics, drought monitoring, and crop modeling. Read more.

Flu Forecasting Website Posts First Predictions

Columbia researchers have launched a new website that reports weekly predictions for rates of season influenza in 94 cities in the United States based on a scientifically validated system. “For the first time, people can see the outlook for seasonal flu in their area by going online,” says IRI's Jeffrey Shaman, assistant professor of Environmental Health Sciences at the Mailman School, who led the development of the site and forecasting system. The URL is cpid.iri.columbia.edu.