InForMID
Tufts Initiative for the Forecasting and Modeling of Infectious Diseases
InForMID
Tufts Initiative for the Forecasting and Modeling of Infectious Diseases

Tania M. Alarcon Falconi | PhD

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Education
• PhD, 2018, Civil and Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering, Tufts University
• BS, 2006, Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering, Tufts University

Occupation
• Senior Scientist, Environmental Health & Engineering, Inc.
• Adjunct Assistant Professor, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University

Research Interests
• Effective communications with visualizations and interactive dashboards
• Modeling and surveillance of seasonal infections and time-referenced data
• Characterization of spatiotemporal uncertainties in time series analysis

Research Highlights

Alarcon Falconi TM, Estrella B, Sempertegui F, Naumova EN. (2020). Effects of data aggregation on time series analysis of seasonal infections. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(16): 5887. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17165887

Alarcon Falconi TM, Cruz MS, Naumova EN. (2018). The shift in seasonality of legionellosis in the USA. Epidemiology and Infection, 146 (14): 1824-1833. DOI:10.1017/S0950268818002182

Alarcon Falconi TM, Kulinkina AV, Mohan VR, Francis MR, Kattula D, Sarkar R, Ward H, Kang G, Balraj V, Naumova EN. (2017). Quantifying tap-to-household water quality deterioration in urban communities in Vellore, India: The impact of spatial assumptions. International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, 220(1), 29-36. DOI:10.1016/j.ijheh.2016.09.019

Scully MJ, Norris GA, Alarcon Falconi TM, MacIntosh DL. (2021). Carbon intensity of corn ethanol in the United States: state of the science. Environmental Research Letters, 16(4), 043001.

Professional Experience
  • Senior Scientist. Environmental Health & Engineering, Inc. Newton, MA. August 2020 – present.
  • Adjunct Assistant Professor. The Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University, Boston, MA. November 2018 – present.
  • Statistical Consultant. Department of Community Health, Tufts University, Medford, MA. May 2018 – August 2018.
  • Research Associate. Initiative for the Forecasting and Modeling of Infectious Diseases (InForMID), Tufts University, Medford, MA and Boston, MA. December 2015 – August 2018.
  • Statistical Consultant. Research Technology, Tufts Technology Services, Tufts University, Medford, MA. January 2018 – May 2018.
  • Statistical Consultant. Tufts Medical Center Surgical and Interventional Research Laboratories, Boston, MA. December 2017 – February 2018.
  • Research Development Intern. Office of Research Development, Tufts University, Boston, MA. April 2016 – April 2017.
  • Research Assistant. Tufts Institute for Innovation Grant, Tufts University, Medford, MA and Boston, MA. September 2014 – November 2015.
  • Environmental Engineer. ARCADIS, U.S., San Diego, CA. January 2007 – May 2012.
  • Research Intern. Entropic Systems, Inc. Woburn, MA. July-August 2004.
Teaching Experience
  • Writing Well About Food and Nutrition. Graduate course, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University; Guest Instructor (2018 – present).
  • Data Visualization Workshop. Conference workshop, Analytics Without Borders Conference, Tufts University; Instructor (2020).
  • Statistical Methods for Nutrition Research II. Graduate course, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University; Course Director (2019, 2020).
  • Statistical Methods for Health Professionals II. Graduate course, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University; Course Director (2019).
  • Thesis: Research Methods and Proposal Writing Practicum. Graduate course, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University; Course Co-Director (2019).
  • Data Visualization in R. Conference workshop, Nutrition Data Summit, Tufts University; Instructor (2018).
  • Interdisciplinary Research Methods. Graduate course, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tufts University; Guest Instructor (2018)
  • Data Visualization, Infographics, and Effective Communication. Graduate course, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University; Teaching Assistant (2018)
  • Statistics Beyond the Basics. Graduate workshop, Tufts University; Teaching Fellow (2016, 2017)
  • Introduction to Statistics for Health Applications. Undergraduate course, Department of Community Health, Tufts University; Teaching Assistant (2017)
  • Introduction to Statistics for Health Applications. Undergraduate course, Department of Community Health, Tufts University; Guest Instructor (2016)
  • Advanced Data Analysis. Graduate course, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University; Teaching Assistant (2017)
  • Advanced Data Analysis. Graduate course, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University; Graduate Institute for Teaching (GIFT) Fellow (2016)
  • Probability and Statistics. Undergraduate course, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tufts University; Teaching Assistant (2015, 2016)
  • Intro to Hydraulic Engineering. Undergraduate course, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tufts University; Teaching Assistant (2013, 2014)
  • Water Diplomacy Workshop. Professional workshop, Water Diplomacy Program, Tufts University; Teaching Aid (2013, 2014)
  • Climate Change Engineering. Undergraduate course, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tufts University; Teaching Assistant (2013)
  • Engineering Graphics. Undergraduate course, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tufts University; Teaching Assistant (2012)
  • Introductory English. Language course for teenagers and professionals, CEVAZ Language Institute; Cabimas, Venezuela; Instructor (2002)
Honors and Awards
  • Presidential Award for Civic Life, Tufts University, 2018
  • Graduate Student Poster Competition Second Place Award, Tufts University, 2016
  • Best Student Presentation Award, the 25th Annual Conference and General Meeting of the International Environmetrics Society (TIES), National Science Foundation (NSF), 2015
  • International Peace Scholarship, P.E.O., 2014
  • Commander R.J. Manning Memorial Prize, Tufts University, 2006
  • Chemical and Biological Engineering Prize, Tufts University, 2006
  • Admitted to the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society, 2006
  • Fundación Unidad Latina Scholarship, Tufts University, 2005
  • Karen Rigg Shining Torch Award, Northeastern University, 2004
  • National Honor Society (Phi Kappa Phi) Award, Northeastern University, 2004
  • College of Engineering Award, Northeastern University, 2003
  • CenSSIS Scholar, Northeastern University, 2003
  • Freshman Academic Excellence Award, Northeastern University, 2003
Leadership and Service
  • Co-founder/president, Tufts University Student Chapter of the American Statistical Association, 2016 – 2018.
  • Board member/former president, Civil and Environmental Engineering Graduate Student Organization, Tufts University, 2013 – 2018.
  • Orientation panelist, Tufts University 1+4 Bridge-Year Service Learning Program, Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life, 2017.
  • Co-organizer/fundraising committee member, Water & Cities: Shaping the Flow of Our Urban Future. The 5th annual Water, Systems, Science & Society (WSSS) Symposium, Tufts University, 2014.
  • Member, Engineers without Borders, San Diego Professional Chapter, 2011 – 2012.
  • Co-president, International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE) Student Chapter, Tufts University, 2005 – 2006.
  • Co-founder/president, Proyección Iberoamericana de Northeastern University (PIANU), 2003 – 2004.
Editorial Activities
  • Guest editor, Special Issue "Infectious Disease Modeling in the Era of Complex Data", International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2019 – present.
  • Assisted with reviews. PlosONE.
Publications
  • Scully MJ, Norris GA, Alarcon Falconi TM, MacIntosh DL. (2021). Carbon intensity of corn ethanol in the United States: state of the science. Environmental Research Letters, 16(4), 043001.
  • Allen JD, Hollander J, Gualtieri L, Alarcon Falconi TM, Savir S, Agenor M. (2020). Feasibility of a twitter campaign to promote HPV vaccine uptake among racially/ethnically diverse young adult women living in public housing. BMC Public Health, 20:830. DOI:10.1186/s12889-020-08824-0
  • Simpson RB, Zhou B, Alarcon Falconi TM, Naumova EN. (2020). An analecta of visualizations for foodborne illness trends and seasonality. Scientific Data, 7:346. DOI:10.1038/s41597-020-00677-x
  • Alarcon Falconi TM, Estrella B, Sempertegui F, Naumova EN. (2020). Effects of data aggregation on time series analysis of seasonal infections. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(16): 5887. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17165887
  • Acevedo A, Alarcon Falconi TM, Rodriguez Borja I, Carzo N, Naumova E. (2019). Trends in hospitalizations for substance use disorders among older adults. In Garets M, Archer S, Kitchens C, Cochran G & Gordon AJ. The 2019 addiction health services research conference: Insights, review, and abstracts. Substance Abuse, 40:4, 469-472 (Supp p.18). DOI: 10.1080/08897077.2019.1688221
  • Venkat A, Alarcon Falconi TM, Cruz MS, Hartwick MA, Anandan S, Kumar N, Ward H, Veeraraghavan B, Naumova EN (2019). Spatiotemporal patterns of cholera hospitalization in Vellore, India. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(21): 4257. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph16214257
  • Simpson R, Alarcon Falconi TM, Venkat A, Chui KHH, Navidad J, Naumov YN, Gorski J, Bhattacharyya S, Naumova EN. (2019). Incorporating calendar effects to predict influenza seasonality in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Epidemiology and Infection, 147, E268. DOI:10.1017/S0950268819001511
  • Simpson R, Venkat A, Alarcon Falconi TM, Chui KHH, Naumov YN, Gorski J, Bhattacharyya S, Naumova EN. (2019). Calendar effects to forecast influenza seasonality: A case study in Milwaukee, WI. Online Journal of Public Health Informatics, 11(1). DOI: 5210/ojphi.v11i1.9739
  • Stashevsky PS, Yakovina IN, Alarcon Falconi TM, Naumova EN. (2019). Agglomerative clustering of enteric infections and weather parameters to identify seasonal outbreaks. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(12): 2083. DOI: 3390/ijerph16122083
  • Alarcon Falconi TM, Cruz MS, Naumova EN. (2018). The shift in seasonality of legionellosis in the USA. Epidemiology and Infection, 146 (14): 1824-1833. DOI:10.1017/S0950268818002182
  • Beale CN, Esmail M, Aguiar AM, Coughlin L, Merley AL, Alarcon Falconi TM, Perkins SE. Use of air activated thermal devices during recovery after surgery in mice. (2018). Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science, 57 (4): 392-400. DOI: 10.30802/AALAS-JAALAS-17-000077
  • Alarcon Falconi TM, Kulinkina AV, Mohan VR, Francis MR, Kattula D, Sarkar R, Ward H, Kang G, Balraj V, Naumova EN. (2017). Quantifying tap-to-household water quality deterioration in urban communities in Vellore, India: The impact of spatial assumptions. International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, 220(1), 29-36. DOI:10.1016/j.ijheh.2016.09.019
  • Cruz MS, Alarcon Falconi TM, Hartwick M, Venkat A, Elrich YH, Anandan S, Ward H, Balaji V, Naumova EN. (2017). From hospitalization records to surveillance: The use of local patient profiles to characterize cholera in Vellore, India. PLOS ONE 12(8): e0182642. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0182642