Lydia Bourouiba

Lydia Bourouiba is an Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Professor, She directs the Fluid Dynamics of Disease Transmission Laboratory at MIT.

Bourouiba's research considers the fluid dynamics of disease transmission. Her work has overturned previous conventional thinking about sneezes and disease transmission. Bourouiba studies respiratory pathogen emissions, work that has significant implications for the COVID-19 pandemic and for limiting transmission of the coronavirus disease and future pandemics. She was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2021. After completing her doctorate, she joined the Department of Mathematics at MIT.

Research and career Bourouiba uses mathematical modelling to understand the spread of disease. After her early work in the modelling and theoretical aspects of expiratory events, when she joined Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2010, she became interested in the size distribution of exhaled droplets. It includes at biosafety level 2 laboratory, which permits the study of the sneezes of healthy patients as well as those with influenza. The cameras were set up to collect thousands of frames per second, which facilitated the study of the sneezes in slow motion. Her videos showed that sneezes, exhalations, and coughs consist of mucosalivary droplets that are primarily made of a multi-phase gas cloud. This gas cloud grows as it moves away from the mouth, drawing in air from the surrounding environment. Early reports from China indicated that particles of the virus were found in the hospital rooms of patients who were infected with the disease. She has argued that the guidance given by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) may underestimate the distances required for safe social distancing as they do not take into account the dynamics of the turbulent puff cloud. Alongside improving estimations of 'safe' distances, Bourouiba has looked to understand the efficacy of face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bourouiba founded the first international Fluids and Health Conference in 2019. The conference will become a Gordon Research Conference as of 2022.

Her research on sneezes formed the basis of educational materials produced by Science Friday.

Awards In 2021, Bourouiba was elected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society in the Division of Fluid Dynamics for her work in quantitatively elucidating the mechanisms of droplet impact and fragmentation and for pioneering a new field at the intersection of fluid dynamics and transmission of respiratory and foodborne pathogens with clear and tangible contributions to public health.

The Bourouiba Group received the Tse Cheuk Ng Tai Prize for Innovative Research in Health Sciences in 2014. Bourouiba has also received the Smith Family Foundation Odyssey Award for high-risk/high-reward basic science research in 2018, and the Ole Madsen Mentoring Award in 2019.

Personal life Bourouiba spent part of her childhood in Algeria, during the Algerian Civil War, and also lived in France. Alongside her research, Bourouiba takes part in mountain climbing and long bicycle rides.

Selected publications L. Bourouiba. Healthy Teaching Recommendations: In-person teaching in times of COVID-19, Summer 2021, healthy-teaching.org.