Vittoria Colizza

Director of Research

INSERM
Sorbonne Université
​Faculté de Médecine
Paris, France

email: vittoria.colizza (at) inserm.fr
twitter: @vcolizza​
high-res photo: full, crop

​Short bio

Vittoria Colizza is Director of Research (DR1) at INSERM (French National Institute for Health and Medical Research) and Sorbonne Université, Faculty of Medicine, in the Pierre Louis Institute of Epidemiology and Public Health. She leads the EPIcx lab (Epidemics in complex environments) within the 'Communicable Diseases Surveillance and Modelling' team. A leading expert in mathematical and computational modeling, Colizza focuses on evaluating epidemic and pandemic risks, anticipating their spread, and assessing the effectiveness of prevention and control strategies. Her research informs public health policies by incorporating data on population behavior, including mobility and contact patterns derived from both traditional and digital sources.

Trained as a physicist, Colizza earned her PhD in Statistical and Biological Physics in 2004 from the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) in Trieste, Italy. She then worked at Indiana University’s School of Informatics as a postdoctoral researcher (2004-2006) and visiting Assistant Professor (2007). In 2007, she was awarded a prestigious ERC Starting Grant in Life Sciences and joined the ISI Foundation in Turin, Italy (2007-2010). In 2011, Colizza joined INSERM in Paris, where she was promoted to Director of Research in 2017. From 2020 to 2022, she was Visiting Professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan. In 2023-2024 Colizza was appointed Distinguished Visiting Fellow by Georgetown University, Washington DC, US. 

Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, Colizza was at the forefront of the pandemic response, advising public health agencies and government authorities in France and abroad. For her contributions, she was awarded the Knighthood of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 2020 by President Sergio Mattarella. In 2021, she received the prestigious prix Irène Joliot Curie – Prix spécial de l’engagement from the French Academy of Sciences and the French Ministry of Research. In 2023, Colizza was named Chevalier in the Order of the Légion d'honneur by President Emmanuel Macron. She is also a Fellow of the Network Science Society since 2022. Since its launch in 2021, she serves as co-President of the Concerted Action on Modeling Infectious Diseases (Action Coordonnée Modélisation des maladies infectieuses) for the ANRS-MIE.

​
​Honors, awards, service

Colizza received a number of honors and awards, including: 

• Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Georgetown University, Washington DC, 2023-2024
• Knighthood of the Order of the Légion d'honneur by the French President Mr. Macron, 2023. 
• Member of the Monkeypox IHR Emergency Committee of WHO for the declaration of the Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), 2022-2023.
• Fellow of the Network Science Society, since 2022.
• INSERM award for Doctoral and Research Supervision, 2021-2025.
• Prix Irène Joliot Curie – Prix spécial de l’engagement by the French Academy of Sciences and the French Ministry of Research, 2021.
• Named by Le Monde as one of the 5 women whose voices count in the response against COVID-19, 2021. 
• Knighthood of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic by the Italian President Mr Mattarella, 2020. 
• Erdős–Rényi Award from the Network Science Society, 2017. [The prize is awarded to a selected young scientist (under 40 years old on the day of the nomination deadline) for her/his achievements in research activities in the area of network science, broadly construed. While the achievements can be both theoretical and experimental, the prize is aimed at emphasizing outstanding contributions relevant to the interdisciplinary progress of network science].
• Telethon-Farmindustria Award, 2017. [In occasion of the 10th anniversary of the ERC (European Research Council), Telethon Farmindustria awarded a Research Prize to the youngest female researcher recipient of an ERC in Italy in the field of Life Sciences].
• Google ‘Solve for X’ Scientist, 2015. [Google ‘Solve for X’ is a global community that aims to surface brilliant scientific innovations and technological breakthroughs, that have the potential to solve big global problems facing humanity].
• Young Scientist Award for Socio- Econophysics 2013.
• Prix Louis-Daniel Beauperthuy 2012 (Human biology & Medical sciences) of the French Academy of Sciences [“Biannual prize to be awarded to a scientist (French or foreigner) to reward epidemiological studies that have contributed to improve the fate of humanity, as the ones conducted by Louis-Daniel Beauperthuy”].
• Young Advisor to the Vice President of the European Commission Mrs. Neelie Kroes for the new Digital Agenda for Europe, 2010-2020 (2011 – 2014).
• European Research Council Starting Independent Researcher Grant (2008 – 2013).
• Young Talent Award, Italian Ministry of Youth (2010).

Colizza currently serves as:​

• Co-President of the Action Coordonnée Modélisation des maladies infectieuses (Concerted Action on Modeling infectious diseases) of the ANRS-MIE, since 2021.
• Member of the Academic Council of Sorbonne Université, since 2022. 

Previous (selected) service:

• Vice-President and Secretary of the Network Science Society, 2022-2023.
• Board member of the Network Science Society, till 2023. 
• Member of the Monkeypox IHR Emergency Committee of WHO for the declaration of the Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), 2022-2023.
• Member of the Innovators’ Strategic Advisory Board on People-Centered Innovation for the Italian Government for G7, 2017.
• Young Advisor to the Vice President of the European Commission Mrs. Neelie Kroes for the new Digital Agenda for Europe, 2011-2014. 

​

Featured in the media (selection)

• CNN (15/09/2021): From Europe to the US, Covid cases in children are surging. Schools aren’t prepared
• Le Monde (05/06/2021): Covid-19 : cinq femmes dont les voix comptent ​
• Nature News (05/05/2021): COVID research: a year of scientific milestones
• Le Monde (05/01/2021): Covid-19 : ces modélisateurs qui anticipent la pandémie
• Portrait by Liberation (29/04/2020): Vittoria Colizza, carte virale 
• Portrait by Corriere della Sera (20/04/2020): Coronavirus, l’italiana star della ricerca a Parigi: «Il 60% di contagi resta ignoto»
• ERC News (24/03/2020): Using computational models to predict the spread of coronavirus
• Portrait by Le Monde (17/02/2020): Vittoria Colizza : le virus de la recherche

EPIcx lab, 27 rue Chaligny, 75012, Paris, France

INSERM - Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale
Sorbonne Université, Faculté de Médecine
IPLESP UMR-S 1136, site Hôpital St Antoine