As the number of coronavirus cases continues to rise in the U.S. and around the world, dozens of University of Michigan experts across a wide variety of disciplines are conducting research and using their expertise to address COVID-19 and its impact on public health, the economy, the environment, education and more.

The World Health Organization called countries to "pull out all the stops" and warned "this is not a drill," as new coronavirus infections surpass the 100,000 threshold worldwide. As the outbreak unfolds, nearly three dozen University of Michigan experts can discuss its societal, economic and public health impacts.

FACULTY Q&A The COVID-19 pandemic has evoked many emotions among people worldwide—none more prevalent than fear. These fears, according to University of Michigan psychology professor Joshua Ackerman, can be managed by finding activities that improve well-being and decision-making. Ackerman’s research focuses on how people respond to and cope with ecological threats, including those related to Read more

FACULTY Q&A Geoffrey Hoffman, assistant professor of nursing at the University of Michigan, studies older adult care and health policies that affect older adults. The mortality rate for COVID-19 increases for older adults, yet we’ve seen anecdotal evidence and media reports of older adults not self-isolating and millennials flouting warnings against gathering in groups. Hoffman Read more

EXPERTS ADVISORY With ventilator supplies unable to meet the needs of U.S. hospitals facing COVID-19, automakers have announced plans to shift production and manufacture the vital breathing machines. University of Michigan experts are available to discuss this process and the challenges ahead. Albert Shih is a professor of both mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering who Read more

ANN ARBOR—In just one week, the University of Michigan has collected tens of thousands of masks, gloves and other pieces of protective gear from the community to keep front-line health workers at Michigan Medicine safe while they treat an ever-rising number of patients with COVID-19. Now, the donation drive will take on an added dimension, Read more

ANN ARBOR—The stress and uncertainty caused by the coronavirus has taken its toll on parents—and children are feeling the psychological and physical brunt of it, say University of Michigan researchers. More parents have shouted, yelled or screamed at their children at least once in the past two weeks, according to a new U-M report. In Read more

FACULTY Q&A As governments respond to the evolving COVID-19 crisis, a University of Michigan public policy professor is studying the different ways several countries grapple with the same contagious disease. Shobita Parthasarathy, director of the Ford School of Public Policy’s Science, Technology, and Public Policy program, has applied for a National Science Foundation Rapid Response Read more

Cynthia Chestek has turned her lifelong passion for “making” into a very successful career in engineering. Her team at the University of Michigan has come up with a way for amputees to control prosthetic devices using their brain waves. Her family connection to the university started with her grandfather Warren Bentz, who attended in the Read more

ANN ARBOR—Chemical reactions are used to produce all kinds of important molecules such as drugs, agrochemicals and materials. To create a drug with specific properties—polar enough to dissolve in the aqueous environment of the stomach and blood, but greasy enough to pass through cells or cross the blood-brain barrier—chemists usually swap out the starting materials. Read more

ANN ARBOR—A new study from a University of Michigan researcher and colleagues at three institutions demonstrates the potential for using existing networks of buried optical fibers as an inexpensive observatory for monitoring and studying earthquakes. The study provides new evidence that the same optical fibers that deliver high-speed internet and HD video to our homes Read more

ANN ARBOR—The most violent solar weather—coronal mass ejections—can flood space with high-energy particle radiation that would harm astronauts and damage spacecraft in its path. A new $62.6 million NASA mission led by the University of Michigan aims to provide better information on how the sun’s radiation affects the space environment that our spacecraft and astronauts Read more