Lu Zhong
I am currently a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at Clemson University, working with Dr. Lior Rennert within the Center for Public Health Modeling and Response. Before that, I was a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Computer Science and the Network Science and Technology Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, as advised by Dr. Jianxi Gao. I obtained my Ph.D. degree in Data Science at the City University of Hong Kong, advised by Dr. Qingpeng Zhang.
My research focuses on improving healthcare operations and resilience by bridging computational network science with AI-driven decision intelligence. I study multi-scale structural dynamics to develop evidence-based frameworks that improve population health across levels—from public health preparedness and response to extreme events (e.g., infectious disease surges, pandemics, natural disasters, and climate-related disruptions) to continuity of care at the individual level through a precision health lens. Using predictive modeling, complex systems analysis, and graph-based machine learning, my work has advanced the understanding of spatial epidemiology, human behavior, and healthcare system resilience, with flagship findings published in Nature Medicine (2024), Nature Cities (2025), and Nature Communications Physics (2021). Beyond clinical operations, my research extends to the resilience of socio-technical systems, addressing broader societal challenges at the intersection of health, infrastructure, and environment.
Broadly, I leverage petabyte-scale human behavior data and electronic health records to advance data-driven intelligence in public health. My research has been awarded the Research Accelerator Grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. I am also the referee for Journals like IEEE Transactions on Computational Social Systems, BMC Public Health, and Scientific Reports, dedicated to advancing the frontier of computational public health.
Related links
News
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2026/04. New paper shared in arXiv: Enhancing structural resilience in healthcare through patient flow network.
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2026/04. New paper accepted by PNAS Nexus: Persistent collaboration as a structural signature of scientific resilience
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2026/04. New paper accepted by the Journal of The Royal Society Interface: Switching exploration modes in human mobility.
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2025/10. Lu presented her work at the Science for Health Systems Conference 2025.
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2025/10. Lu presented her work for the Clemson-MUSC AI Hub Annual Summit.
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2025/07. New paper published in Nature Cities: Universal expansion of human mobility across urban scales.
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2025/04. New paper shared in medRxiv: Examining inequality in healthcare utilization during pandemic disruptions
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2025/04. Lu joined Clemson University as a Research Assistant Professor.
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2025/04. Lu presented her work on patient flow network at the conference NERCCS 2025.
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2025/04. Congratulations to student Dimitri on receiving a PhD offer from Northeastern University's Network Science Institute!
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2025/01. Congratulations to Lu for having her newborn boy Dylan!