George G. Vega Yon, Ph.D.

Associate Research Professor · Division of Epidemiology, University of Utah

How do connections between people shape behavior, health, and the spread of disease? My research develops statistical and computational methods to study these questions.

I am a methodologist working at the intersection of network science, statistical computing, and complex systems. I study social networks, social influence, and disease transmission, with particular expertise in exponential-family random graph models (ERGMs), simulation, and mechanistic — or theory-driven — machine learning. The applications are deliberately multidisciplinary, spanning epidemiology and outbreak modeling, criminology, the social transmission of behavior, and the evolution of gene functions.

Tool development is central to my work. I build scientific software for statistical inference, high-performance computing, and simulation, turning sophisticated methods into reliable tools that other researchers can use. More recently I have focused on making complex models accessible beyond specialist audiences — interactive, public-facing tools like the measles simulator built during the recent US outbreaks.

I am an Associate Research Professor in the Division of Epidemiology at the University of Utah, with adjunct appointments in Population Health Sciences and the Kahlert School of Computing. My interdisciplinary training spans Public Policy (M.A., UAI), Economics (M.Sc., Caltech), and Biostatistics (Ph.D., USC).