Computational Epidemiology Est. 2011 · 28 countries
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Nishant Kishore

Atlanta, GA · [email protected] · nishantkishore.com · Google Scholar · GitHub

Computational epidemiologist with 15 years of experience designing surveillance systems, building statistical frameworks, and leading outbreak response across 28 countries. Work has included national measles forecasting platforms and mobile phone data frameworks now used internationally.

Education

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health PhD, Population Health Sciences – Epidemiology Dissertation: "Quantifying Disease Dynamics in Post-Disaster and Acute Epidemic Settings Using Passively Collected Data"
2021
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health MS, Biostatistics
2021
Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University MPH, Global Epidemiology Thesis: "Flying, Phones and Flu: Anonymized Call Records Suggest that Keflavik International Airport Introduced Pandemic H1N1 into Iceland in 2009" (published in Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses, 2020) · Graduate Certificate in Complex Humanitarian Emergencies · Shepard Award finalist · Gangarosa Award winner
2016
College of William & Mary BS, Neuroscience
2010

Professional Experience

The Carter Center Atlanta, GA
August 2025 – present
Epidemiologist, Hispaniola Initiative Lead – River Blindness, Lymphatic Filariasis and Malaria Group
  • Lead epidemiological strategy for malaria, river blindness (onchocerciasis), and lymphatic filariasis (LF) elimination across Haiti and the Dominican Republic
  • Supported the Dominican Republic Ministry of Health in preparing the national dossier for LF elimination certification
  • Developed the post-validation surveillance protocol for LF in the DR
  • Piloting a molecular xenomonitoring surveillance program as part of post-validation LF surveillance
  • Conducting impact assessments of indoor residual spraying (IRS) programs on malaria transmission
  • Serving as consulting epidemiologist for OEPA (Pan American Program for Onchocerciasis Elimination)
  • Serving on the Carter Center's AI Governance Board, helping develop standards and best practices for responsible AI use across programs
Health Data Collaborative Geneva, Switzerland (remote)
September 2026 – present
Special Advisor to the Board, Data and AI (concurrent)
  • Appointed by the HDC Board as Special Advisor for Data and AI, a non-voting advisory seat providing independent strategic and technical expertise to the Board
  • Advise on the responsible, equitable, and accountable use of health data, digital technologies, and AI across a WHO-hosted, country-led partnership on health information systems
  • Support Board review of emerging trends in health information systems, digital transformation, data governance, and AI, and their implications for country-led priorities
CrisisReady Cambridge, MA
2023 – present
Data Scientist (concurrent)
  • Lead data science at a Harvard-affiliated initiative using data to strengthen disaster preparedness
  • Built heat risk data pipelines supporting governmental disaster response planning
  • Built HeatReady (crisisready.io/heat-risk), a neighborhood-resolution heat risk platform, using AI tools to accelerate development and widen access
  • Develop frameworks for translating mobility and environmental data into actionable public health guidance
Comunidad Connect Atlanta, GA
2021 – present
Board Member (concurrent)
  • Board member for a non-profit connecting Latino communities to health and social services across Atlanta
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Atlanta, GA
July 2023 – August 2025
Computational Epidemiologist – Surveillance, Innovation and Research Team, Global Immunization Division
  • Led an international team to develop and deploy core libraries used in the epidemiological investigation, validation, and evaluation of POLIS, an international Polio surveillance platform used by GPEI partners — saving 80+ person-hours per week
  • Investigated outbreaks of Polio in Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria, and DRC using novel data sources and partially-observed inference frameworks, guiding key immunization policy decisions
  • Partnered with the Kazakh Ministry of Health to develop a national predictive platform for an acute measles outbreak, holding <5% forecast error on a 2-week horizon for 6 months in production
  • Co-developed CDC HHS Gen AI guidelines as part of a Tiger Team, resulting in the first FedRAMP-compliant generative AI platform available to all federal staff
  • Designed high-throughput databases with standardized internal and external APIs for secure, decentralized access by field epidemiologists across 32+ countries
  • Created and delivered a standardized course on statistics, systems design, R, Python, epidemiology, and visualization to 800+ participants from Ministries of Health and field programs worldwide
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Atlanta, GA
August 2021 – June 2023
Steven M. Teutsch Prevention Effectiveness Fellow – Public Health Analytics and Modeling, Global Immunization Division
  • Developed the 'tidypolis' R package for automated POLIS data download, reducing processing time by 87.5% across GPEI partners
  • Built the 'Polio Lite' statistical framework for evaluating SIA intervention scenarios using partially-observed Markovian processes
  • Deployed to Malawi as part of an Outbreak Response Activity (OBRA) supporting the team lead in developing the post-evaluation report
  • Designed and delivered advanced R, simulation-based inference, and time-series analysis training to 50 PhD and MD-level FETP fellows in Kazakhstan
EpiTech Consultants Atlanta, GA
November 2015 – December 2024
Co-Founder and CEO (concurrent)
  • Built EraseMM, an on-demand epidemiological data repository and processing platform used by CDC and the Georgia Department of Health — serverless AWS stack (Aurora, Lambda, API Gateway), cutting client costs by 90%+
  • Led an interdisciplinary team of epidemiologists, software developers, and public health practitioners across multi-national projects for NGOs, governments, and academic institutions
  • Developed and cultivated business relationships leading to a six-fold increase in client base
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Boston, MA
2016 – 2021
Research Scientist & PhD Candidate
  • Led the Hurricane Maria mortality study published in NEJM; findings prompted a federal review of U.S. disaster mortality accounting
  • Developed mobile phone data frameworks for COVID-19 epidemiology; work adopted by national health agencies internationally
  • Co-founded CrisisReady and built its early data infrastructure for real-time disaster preparedness
  • Published 15+ peer-reviewed papers in Nature Medicine, NEJM, PNAS, Nature Communications, and The Lancet Digital Health

Peer-Reviewed Publications

  1. Wu JT, Leung K, Bushman M, Kishore N, et al. Estimating clinical severity of COVID-19 from the transmission dynamics in Wuhan, China. Nature Medicine (2020). doi:10.1038/s41591-020-0822-7 1,758 citations
  2. Kishore N, Marqués D, Mahmud A, Kiang MV, et al. Mortality in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. New England Journal of Medicine (2018). doi:10.1056/NEJMsa1803972 988 citations
  3. Grantz KH, Meredith HR, Cummings DA, Kishore N, et al. The use of mobile phone data to inform analysis of COVID-19 pandemic epidemiology. Nature Communications (2020). doi:10.1038/s41467-021-21243-2 520 citations
  4. Kissler SM, Kishore N, Prabhu M, et al. Reductions in commuting mobility correlate with geographic differences in SARS-CoV-2 prevalence in New York City. Nature Communications (2020). doi:10.1038/s41467-020-18271-5 146 citations
  5. Kishore N, Kiang MV, Engø-Monsen K, Vembar N, et al. Measuring mobility to monitor travel and physical distancing interventions: A common framework for mobile phone data analysis. The Lancet Digital Health (2020). doi:10.1016/S2589-7500(20)30193-X 133 citations
  6. Acosta RJ, Kishore N, Irizarry RA, Buckee CO Quantifying the dynamics of migration after Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2020). doi:10.1073/pnas.2001671117 106 citations
  7. Kishore N, Kahn R, Martinez PP, De Salazar PM, Mahmud AS, Buckee CO Lockdowns result in changes in human mobility which may impact the epidemiologic dynamics of SARS-CoV-2. Scientific Reports (2021). doi:10.1038/s41598-021-86297-w 72 citations
  8. Sullivan PS, Jones J, Kishore N, Stephenson R The roles of technology in primary HIV prevention for men who have sex with men. Current HIV/AIDS Reports (2015). doi:10.1007/s11904-015-0279-3 65 citations
  9. Kishore N, Taylor AR, Jacob PE, Vembar N, et al. Evaluating the reliability of mobility metrics from aggregated mobile phone data as proxies for SARS-CoV-2 transmission in the USA. The Lancet Digital Health (2021). doi:10.1016/S2589-7500(21)00151-4 50 citations
  10. Kishore N, et al. Surveillance to track progress toward polio eradication. MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (2024). 28 citations

Full publication list at Google Scholar · 4,000+ total citations

Key Skills

Computational

R, Python, QGIS, ArcGIS, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, AWS Lambda, AWS Aurora, AWS SageMaker, REST API, systems architecture

Methodological

Time-series analysis, infectious disease epidemiology, mechanistic models, stochastic compartment models, non-linear systems, partially observed Markovian processes, study design, bias analysis, spatial analysis, analytic pipelines, automation, and systems design

Mobile Data Collection

CommCareHQ, FrontlineSMS, Textit, RapidPro, FormHub, ODK

Languages

English (Native), Spanish (Fluent), French (Advanced), Hindi (Conversational), Malayalam (Conversational)

Honors & Awards

2024
United States Public Health Service Unit Commendation — Foundational work to implement responsible and ethical use of novel conversational AI technology at CDC
2024
CDC Group Award – Special Act or Service — Development of tidypolis and sirfunctions as core modules of an international Polio surveillance platform
2023
CDC Group Award – Special Act or Service — Development of automated Polio epidemiologic desk reviews
2022
CDC Group Award – Special Act or Service — Development of SIR CORE 3.0 systems for international Polio surveillance
2016
Charles C. Shepard Award for Most Scholarly Thesis — Finalist – Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University
2016
Eugene J. Gangarosa Award for Excellence in International Health — Winner – Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University
2016
Delta Omega Honors Society in Public Health