The Lover Lab at UMass-Amherst

Andrew Lover is an associate professor of epidemiology in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences, at UMass-Amherst. His research covers a broad range of infectious disease epidemiology, including vector-borne disease; surveillance and forecasting; malaria; and the design, implementation, and analysis of complex epidemiological studies, in both domestic (Western Massachusetts) and global contexts (including Vietnam, Lao PDR, Timor-Leste, and Cambodia).

He is also the Deputy Director of the CDC-funded New England Center of Excellence in Vector-borne Disease. This regional consortium (based at UMass) comprises a wide range of academic and public health partners from across New England. Further information: https://www.newvec.org/

Since mid-2024, he has also been a commissioner for the Pioneer Valley mosquito control district (PVMCD) which provides mosquito surveillance and control activities in local communities; more info here: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/pioneer-valley-mosquito-control-district-pvmcd.

His research over the past ten years has been directed towards the design, implementation, and analysis of epidemiological studies and subsequent policies that address where slippages in both community- and individual-level public health programming occur, and ways to address these gaps through improved programing or novel interventions.

SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19. The Lover Lab is currently supporting global efforts to mitigate the impacts of this pandemic. This work includes a faculty role in UMass campus response; syndromic surveillance and modeling studies; and implementation of a large-scale serological survey (“antibody test”) across Massachusetts.

Tick-borne infections. The Lover Lab has received funding from the NIH for tick-borne studies in Western Massachusetts. These novel spatial case-control studies will aim to identify areas with highest human-tick overlaps, to help optimize public health tick surveillance programs in New England and beyond.

His lab currently consists of three PhD students (Johanna Ravenhurst,  Mahfuj Alam, and Augustine Dada). Their main research studies involve a combination of qualitative and quantitative field data collection, quantitative analysis, and modeling to directly inform public health policy.

Main Research Interests