Dr. Emma Hodcroft

Emma Hodcroft is an Assistant Professor working in molecular epidemiology, phylogenetics, and modelling, and head of the Epidemiology and Viral Evolution (EVE) group. She completed her PhD in the heritability of viral load in HIV at the University of Edinburgh and developed an agent-based model simulating HIV phylogenies as a post-doc at the same University, working on the PANGEA-HIV project.

She moved to the University of Basel in 2017 to join the Biozentrum and the Nextstrain project, working on projects in tuberculosis, campylobacter, influenza and RSV, with a primary focus on Enterovirus D68. From February 2020 Dr Hodcroft moved to working full-time on SARS-CoV-2 as part of the pandemic response, including identifying a key variant that dominated Europe early in the pandemic. This work led to the creation of the first variant-tracking website, CoVariants.org. Her work in clear and concise science communication during the pandemic led to her gaining over 80,000 social media followers and appearing in national and international press, radio, and TV. In late 2020 she moved to ISPM at the University of Bern to continue SARS-CoV-2 work, including better integration of models and phylogenetics. From 2022 she additionally worked half-time at the University of Geneva.

Having successfully been awarded a SNSF Starting Grant in 2022, Dr Hodcroft started at Swiss TPH with the founding of the EVE Group in November 2023, with the aim of better understanding the evolution, spread, and persistence of endemic respiratory viruses. Her work will focus primarily on Enteroviruses, but will include collaborations on other seasonal, respiratory viruses.