"I think the next century
will be the century of complexity."

- Stephen Hawking, 2000

"Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking."

- Albert Einstein

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The hidden geometry of complex, network-driven contagion phenomena
Science 342, 1337 (2013)
Unifying Viral Genetics and Human Transportation Data to Predict the Global Transmission Dynamics of Human Influenza H3N2
PLOS Pathogens 10, e1003932 (2014)

Infected, Part 3: On the Front Lines of the Next Pandemic

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Is Canada ready to handle the sort of super virus that has many scientists worried? In the final part of INFECTED, VICE visits The Ottawa Hospital's "Ebola Room" and speaks with Dr. Virginia Roth about what protocols are in place to handle deadly infectious diseases. We also speak with German physicist Dirk Brockmann, who studies human mobility patterns to find out how infectious diseases spread in our globalized world.

HU Wissen - Magazine Oct. 2014

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Read cover story on our research in the current issue of Humboldt University's research magazine. Here's the article The New Map of the World.

Epidemics on the Computer

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Watch our team's recent TV coverage on Tomorrow - Today, a science show on Deutsche Welle Television, talking about our work on Ebola. This version is in English.

Forschung braucht Risiko (Science requires risk)

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Have a look at the most recent issue of Impulse, the magazine of the Volkswagen Foundation. In it you'll find the article "Gefährlich Globetrotter" explaining our team's research funded by the foundation.

The 2014 Ebola Outbreak

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We just released an interactive network tool for investigating and analyzing the global implications of the ongoing Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Here's the project page and here the interactive tool.

Interactive Epidemic Experiment - 33rd ScienceSlam, SO36, Berlin

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ScienceSlamDE just posted the video of Dirks presentation at the 33. Slam at SO36, Berlin.

Check out the video that shows Dirks first epidemic experiment.

33rd Science Slam - SO36, Berlin

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Check out pictures from the 33rd Science Slam in Berlin's Kreuzberg Club SO36.

Facebook: Chronik einer Seuche

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Watch the following interview on German NDR television show Kulturjournal. Dirk explains the similarities and differences between conventional epidemics and the "Facebook epidemic".

Recent Radio Interviews

Topic: The hidden geometry of complex, network-driven contagion phenomena, Science 342, 1337 (2013)

Youtube: Hidden Geometry Video collects > 100k views

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This video, that explains the basic idea behind our recent study in Science has attracted >100k views in 2 days.

In the movies: Numb3rs

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Charlie Eppes and Nancy Hackett use “Dirk Brockmann’s work with human mobility networks” to predict the location of a future robbery in this episode of the popular CBS show. Charlie finds fractional diffusion equations fascinating.

You can watch the clip here...

Phd Student Ben joins the group

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Ben is working on fluctuation driven evolutionary processes, temporal networks, the analysis of face to face interactions and many other projects.

Postdoctoral Reseachers Fahkteh and Julien join the group

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Master Student Henning Siemen joins the team

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Henning is doing research for his Master at the University of Madgeburg in our team. Henning is working on evolutionary dynamics on complex networks.

PhD Candidate Konstantin Schaar joins the team

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Konstantin, with a degree in physics from the Technical University, Berlin, is working on dynamic contact networks in hospitals, nosocomial infections and a bunch of other interesting topics.

PhD Candidate Olga Baranov joins the team

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Trained in biophysics at Humboldt University, Berlin Olga will be working on modeling the impact of decision processes on disease dynamics using methods borrowed from game theory.

Postdoctoral Fellow Chen Li joins the team

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Theoretical physicist Chen Li, formerly at the Max-Planck-Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, recently joined our team.
Chen Li will be working on dynamical processes on networks and applications to infectious disease dynamics.

National Public Radio: Research featured on Krulwich wonders

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A 'Whom Do You Hang With?' Map Of America.
This story covers our research on the hidden, effective borders in the United States. Read more....

More info also on the project page.

The Story of "Wheresgeorge Billtracking Research"

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How an old school friend triggered the study of dollar bill movements that led to the discovery of the scaling laws of human travel. Read More....

(download PDF).

ABC 7 - Eyewitness News

The story covers our research in which we used wheresgeorge.com bill tracking data in the development of a model for the forecast of the spread of pandemic H1N1 in the US in 2009
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Robert Koch - Institute & Institute for Theoretical Biology, Humboldt University, Berlin