Schar School Assistant Professor Saskia Popescu is one of the “50 Experts to Trust in a Pandemic” according to the editors of the health and wellness website Medium Elemental.
The list of 50 health and science experts was created “to help you separate truth from misinformation and stay up to date,” the editors wrote.
Popescu, an epidemiologist and infection prevention expert at an Arizona hospital system, joined the Schar School faculty in August after earning her PhD in Biodefense in 2019.
Popescu has been a go-to expert for media outlets since the pandemic outbreak began. She has been quoted on various aspects of the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 in publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian, and Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, among others.
She is co-creator of a widely distributed color-coded chart depicting pandemic safety measures and procedures.
Popescu is joined on the global Top 50 list of pandemic experts by scholars from Johns Hopkins University, Harvard Medical School, Yale School of Public Health, Boston University School of Medicine, and leaders from the World Health Organization, and national and state health care and hospital systems, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Popescu is an epidemiologist and hospital infection preventionist in Arizona who has spent her career researching pandemic preparedness and how that facilitates global health security efforts,” the editors wrote. “She’s currently helping to train the next generation of pandemic professionals as part of George Mason University’s biodefense program. Popescu has been working on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic in her state, which is one of the country’s hot spots. Popescu frequently shares her views on the best practices for pandemic response, as well as the insights of her colleagues in health and medicine.”