Stefano Merler
Director, Center for Health Emergencies, FBK
Stefano Merler is the director of Trento based Fondazione Bruno Kessler’s Health Emergencies Center. An epidemiologist, he deals with computational models for the study of the propagation of infectious diseases. He is the author of over 130 scientific studies published in the most important journals in the sector and, for his activity, he has won the Bellman and Aspen awards in 2015 and 2016 respectively. For over twenty years, with the group of mathematical epidemiologists at Fondazione Bruno Kessler, he has been developing quantitative epidemiology methods to strengthen epidemiological surveillance.
Complete bio sketch available at this link.
A summary of the studies and the main findings coordinated by Stefano Merler on Covid-19 is also available here: PREDICTIVE MODELS TO CONTRAST THE SPREAD OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Spotlight's articles
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January 12, 2023Scienza e decisioni | Science and decisionsJanuary 18, Stefano Merler and Alessandro Vespignani, two of the world's leading experts on epidemiological models, will be discussing how the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic brought science, politics and society together. -
December 5, 2022Emerging infectious diseases – FBK joins INF-ACT, an integrated project supported by PNRR fundsThrough the Health Emergencies Center, directed by Stefano Merler, Trento based Fondazione Bruno Kessler will be the leader, together with Istituto Superiore di Sanità (the Italian National Institute of Health) and the Association of Experimental Zooprophylactic Institutes, of the epidemiology and statistical and mathematical modelling studies for INF-ACT, the new consortium of 25 universities, public and private entities dedicated to emerging infectious diseases. -
December 1, 2021FBK projects awarded by the VRT Foundation for relevance and impactThe calls of the Foundation for the Valorization of Trentino Research were launched on March 19, 2020 with the aim of countering the pandemic by supporting research aimed at social impacts -
August 19, 2021Forecasts, scenarios, projections: how do we anticipate the trend of the epidemicIn the focus, the issue explained by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità and Fondazione Bruno Kessler -
June 28, 2021The Seal of St. Wenceslas to Stefano MerlerOn Saturday, June 26, Saint Vigilius's day, the mayor of Trento Franco Ianeselli awarded the seal of San Wenceslas, the highest honor of the city, to Stefano Merler. -
March 17, 2021The COVID-19 symptomatic ratioAge-specific likelihood of developing symptoms and of progressing to critical disease after SARS-CoV-2 infection -
March 2, 2021VCovid in Italy: 54% of infections are due to the English variant, 4.3% to the Brazilian variant and 0.4% to the South African variantThese numbers come from the new 'flash survey' conducted by ISS and the Ministry of Health in cooperation with regional laboratories and Fondazione Bruno Kessler -
January 8, 2021FBK-ISS-INAIL study, reopening with high incidence is risky, even if Rt is lower than 1Relaxing restrictions when the incidence of Sars-CoV-2 infections is still high can lead to a rapid new spike in cases, and therefore in hospitalizations, even if the Rt number is below 1. These are the findings of a study, based on data from the epidemic's 'first wave', conducted by researchers from Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK), the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS) and the National Institute for Accident Insurance (INAIL) published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States (PNAS). -
December 30, 2020A new organization for the Bruno Kessler FoundationStarting from January 1, 2021, the statute of FBK has changed: there are now 6 new Research Centres and a Management dedicated to Marketing and business development will be soon inaugurated. -
November 17, 2020Covid-19: what can the Rt number tell us and why is it so important?As information that questioned the validity of the infection metrics used spread, the Ministry of Health held a press conference where FBK researcher Stefano Merler spoke to shed light on some concepts -
November 3, 2020Predictive models and pandemic scenariosFBK epidemiologist Stefano Merler participated in a round table at the Genoa Science Festival on the theme of mathematical models applied to the study of pandemics -
October 15, 2020Prevention and response to Covid19 in ITALYNew study published about strategy and planning evolution for the autumn and winter transition phase. With the contribution of FBK experts in mathematical models to describe scenarios and contain the spread of the infection, led by Stefano Merler -
August 11, 2020COVID-19 and death rates. A study coordinated by Trento based FBKThe research led by epidemiologist Stefano Merler was published in the scientific journal Eurosurveillance -
June 22, 2020R0 and Rt: FBK’s contribution to the analysis of data on the spread of the SARS-COV-2 virusFondazione Bruno Kessler has played an important role during this health emergency. In fact, its contribution was critical in analyzing the data on the spread of the pandemic in close connection with ISS, the Italian National Institute of Health. -
June 19, 2020FBK study calculates the probability of developing symptoms following SARS-COV-2 infectionThe analysis conducted by the researchers from Trento-based Fondazione Bruno Kessler, in cooperation with colleagues from Lombardy Region health institutions and universities in Milan and in the US, has been published online in the arXiv archive pending publication in a scientific journal -
April 30, 2020COVID-19 – Stefano Merler illustrated today at the ISS press conference how the previsional model was builtThe epidemiologist of the Bruno Kessler Foundation (FBK) Stefano Merler participated today, in video call from Trento, in the press conference of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS). -
April 24, 2020SARS-CoV-2: Stefano Merler today’s speech about the updated data on virus transmissibilityThe FBK epidemiologist spoke at today's press conference of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità illustrating the Rt value of the Italian regions. For the province of Trento the average value is 0.44 -
April 14, 2020COVID19: ISS-FBK study finds that the measures taken in Italy were effectiveA few days after the application of the measures to contrast Sars-Cov-2, the reproducibility index of the virus decreased both in Lombardy and in other regions -
March 26, 2020A new study on the spread of the COVID-19 virus in LombardyThe outbreak in Italy started long before February 20 and aggressive containment strategies are needed to control the spread of Covid-19 and avoid catastrophic outcomes for the national health system. -
January 23, 2020New coronavirus, what science can and cannot tell usThere is no scientifically valid information on the epidemic, now global, to help fight its spread, which could also soon affect our country -
December 8, 2019The first functional atlas of the human brain based on intra-operative mapping data has been publishedThe amount and complexity of information processed by the human brain at any given moment is huge and varies extremely from one individual to another. Understanding the anatomical structure and functional mechanisms of information processing that occur between the different brain circuits is one of the greatest challenges for research in clinical neuroscience of the third millennium
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October 30, 2019SurvEthi for schoolsThe new project of the FBK School-to-Work Program that will involve five high schools in applied research in health has ebeen launched -
September 3, 2019Parents, adults and vaccinatedAccording to a study to which also FBK researchers contributed, parental vaccination can help contain the spread of measles in Italy
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February 15, 2019A Research Unit to fight mosquitoes and invasive species has been createdFondazione Bruno Kessler and Fondazione Edmund Mach against the spread of alien species
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November 20, 2018Pandemic: prevention and early intervention strategiesThe prestigious scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) has published the article "Measurability of the epidemic reproduction number in data-driven contact networks". FBK researchers Stefano Merler and Marco Ajelli are among the authors
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July 23, 2018How dengue fever spreadsThe prestigious scientific journal Nature Communications published the paper "Quantifying the spatial spread of dengue in a non-endemic Brazilian metropolis via transmission chain reconstruction". Among the authors, the FBK researchers Giorgio Guzzetta and Stefano Merler
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September 21, 2017THE FBK STUDY ON THE SPREAD OF MEASLES FEATURED ON THE BBCStefano Merler, author of a paper published in the journal "The Lancet Infectious Diseases", was interviewed -
August 22, 2017Also Adults at Risk for Measles. 3 Million between 15 and 40 Years Old Unprotected in ItalyIt has been shown by the study conducted by Fondazione Bruno Kessler and Bocconi University published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. Since the early 1980s, the vaccine has added to Italians a total of about one million years of life.
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April 26, 2017An FBK study on the Zika virus has been published in the international journal PNASThe paper shows that the epidemic trend was mainly determined by climatic and human mobility-related factors
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January 20, 2017Bill Gates quotes an FBK study at WEF 2017For his speech at the World Economic Forum, Bill Gates used data from a study on the Ebola virus conducted by researchers at FBK of Trento in collaboration with Northeastern University in Boston, Doctors with Africa CUAMM, Florida University and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. -
October 27, 20162016 ASPEN award: the winner is a study on the Ebola virus in which FBK participatedThe 2016 Aspen Prize for cooperation and scientific research between Italy and the United States was awarded this year to a study on the Ebola virus in which Fondazione Bruno Kessler of Trento has participated.