Faculty Profile
Andrew F Brouwer, PhD, MS, MA
- Assistant Professor, Epidemiology
Dr. Brouwer’s research focuses on mathematical and statistical modeling for inference in epidemiology, with the goal of making the most of data for the benefit of public health. He is an expert in methods that address questions of parameter identifiability, estimation, and uncertainty. These inference methods are fundamental to epidemiology, and science more broadly, because careful analyses of what can be estimated and how well it can be estimated are key to making supported conclusions with public health impact. Informed by his interdisciplinary background in mathematics and statistics, environmental science and engineering, and epidemiology, his research spans a growing constellation of application areas, including infectious disease, cancer, and tobacco control. Though these areas may seem disparate at first glance, Dr. Brouwer’s work is united by the use of mechanistic frameworks as a lens to interpret real data, a focus on longitudinal patterns and dynamics, and by a quantitative toolset that includes differential equation models, multistate transition models, and age–period–cohort models.
- PhD, Applied and Interdisciplinary Mathematics, University of Michigan, 2015
- M.A., Statistics, University of Michigan, 2015
- M.S., Applied and Interdisciplinary Mathematics, University of Michigan, 2013
- M.S., Environmental Science and Engineering, Clarkson University, 2011
- M.A., Mathematics, SUNY College at Potsdam, 2009
- B.A., Mathematics, Chemistry, SUNY College at Potsdam, 2009
Research Interests:
Mechanistic modeling; infectious disease transmission modeling; cancer prevention,
incidence, and survival; tobacco control; aging and cognitive decline; transition
analysis; gender-minority health
Research Projects:
Environmental pathogen transmission and surveillance. Understanding how environmental
processes impact the transmission of pathogens is essential to determining how to
effectively intervene to reduce disease risk. Dr. Brouwer’s work in this area ranges
from robust considerations of dose-response relationships to wastewater surveillance
to analysis of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) trials to household modeling
of influenza.
Infectious disease modeling for public health practice. Mathematical models are important tools for public health decision making in infectious disease outbreaks. Dr. Brouwer co-leads the Model and Analysis Methods and Practice core of the Michigan Public Health Integrated Center for Outbreak Analytics and Modeling, a partnership between the University of Michigan and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services dedicated to developing and integrating advanced modeling and data analytics tools into public health practice to address both public health emergencies and ongoing infectious disease threats.
Transitions in tobacco and nicotine product use. Despite our long understanding of the health risks of tobacco use, it remains a serious public health threat, with smoking continuing to be the leading preventable cause of death. Dr. Brouwer co-leads the Data Analysis and Modeling Core of the Center for the Assessment of Tobacco Regulations leveraging complex survey data to understand predictors in transitions of tobacco product use.
Cognitive trajectories in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Cognitive trajectories for people with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias are heterogeneous and poorly understood, with complex and nonlinear progression through the cognitive status stages (preclinical disease with apparent normal cognition, mild cognitive impairment, and dementia). Dr. Brouwer’s work in this area seeks to account for interrelated, time-varying risk factors to improve projections of population-level burden and intervention targeting.
Brouwer AF, Eisenberg MC, Dean NE, Hochheiser H, Huang P, Coyle JR, Rennert L. (2026). Infectious disease modeling for public health practice: projections, scenarios, and uncertainty in 3 phases of outbreak response. American Journal of Epidemiology.
Shi N, Bakulski KM, Burke JF, Brouwer AF. (2025). Predictors of transitions between normal cognition, cognitive impairment, and dementia in a longitudinal cohort. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.
Brouwer AF, Shafie-Khorassani F, Benowitz N, Shi N, Baker TB, Hayes-Birchler T, Piper ME. (2025). Urinary tobacco and nicotine exposure biomarkers as predictors of transitions between cigarette and e-cigarette use in the Exhale longitudinal cohort study. Nicotine and Tobacco Research.
Brouwer AF, Zahid MH, Eisenberg MC, Arnold BF, Ashraf S, Benjamin-Chung J, Colford JM, Ercumen A, Luby SP, Pickering AJ, Rahman M, Kraay ANM, Eisenberg J, Freeman M. (2024). Understanding the effectiveness of water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions: a counterfactual simulation approach to generalizing the outcomes of intervention trials. Environmental Health Perspectives.
Brouwer AF, Lee GO, Van Wyk H, Schillinger RJ, Edwards CA, Morrison DJ. (2023). A model-based 13C-sucrose breath test diagnostic for gut function disorders characterized by a loss of sucrase-isomaltase enzymatic activity. Journal of Nutrition.
Brouwer AF, Jeon J, Hirschtick JL, Jimenez-Mendoza E, Mistry R, Bondarenko IV, Land SR, Holford TR, Levy DT, Taylor JMG, Fleischer NL, Meza R. (2020). Transitions between cigarette, ENDS, and dual use in adults in the PATH study (Waves 1–4): multistate transition modeling accounting for complex survey design. Tobacco Control.
View a full list of Dr. Brouwer's publications at Google Scholar.
Email: [email protected]
Address: M5073 SPH II
1415 Washington Heights
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
For media inquiries: [email protected]
Areas of Expertise: Aging, Biostatistics, Cancer, COVID-19, Global Public Health, Infectious Disease, LGBT Health, Modeling, Respiratory Viruses, Substance Use, Tobacco
Andrew Brouwer in the News
Improving global health: A closer look at WASH interventions
Q&A with Andrew Brouwer and Joe Eisenberg
Warming climate in Brazil may increase risk of Zika, dengue by 2050
New research from Michigan Public Health
