About
Lai has long been engaged in interdisciplinary research focusing on human behaviour, population dynamics, environmental changes, and infectious disease transmission and interventions. He has published ~200 book chapters and peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals, including Nature, Science, Lancet Infectious Diseases, Nature Medicine, Nature Human Behaviour, BMJ, and Nature Communications.
Research
Research groups
Research interests
- Lai is interested in understanding the transmission dynamics and intervention effectiveness for infectious diseases; Quantifying seasonal human mobility, social connectivity and migration using novel data sources, e.g. mobile phone data; Investigating spatiotemporal interactions between human behaviour, environmental change and infectious disease dynamics.
Current research
Funded by several national and international funders, as PI/project lead/Co-I in Southampton, his research focuses on spatial demography and spatial epidemiology to model human population dynamics and reveal transmission risk of infectious diseases under environmental changes. Projects in the past five years:
- Machine learning for blue line tracing and wastewater surveillance, Gates Foundation, 2025-2026
- Mapping the risk of Guinea worm disease at a high resolution using geospatial and machine learning approaches, the Carter Centre, 2024-2026
- The fear of 'here': Integrating place-based travel behaviour and detection into novel infectious disease models, National Science Foundation, 2023-2026
- Giving Rural Actors Novel data and re-Useable tools to Lead public Action in Rural area (GRANULAR), Horizon Europe Guarantee (UKRI), 2022-2026
- Human mobility models to forecast disease dynamics and the effectiveness of public health interventions, National Institute for Health (NIH), 2021-2026
- Exploring the seasonality of COVID-19, Gates Foundation, 2021-2022
- MOnitoring Outbreak events for Disease surveillance in a data science context (MOOD), EU Horizon, 2020-2024
- Quantifying Dengue Importation Risk from Southeast Asia and Environmental Suitability of Secondary Transmission in China, National Natural Science Foundation of China, 2018-2021
Research projects
Active projects
Researchers:
Completed projects
Researchers:
Sponsor: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Publications
178 publications
Page 14 of 18
Wan-Jun Chen, Sheng-Jie Lai, Yang Yang, Kun Liu, Xin-Lou Li, Hong-Wu Yao, Yu Li, Hang Zhou, Li-Ping Wang, Di Mu, Wen-Wu Yin, Li-Qun Fang, Hong-Jie Yu & Wu-Chun Cao,
2016, PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 10(4), 1-15
Type: article
J.L. Sun, S.J. Lai, Z.K. Zhang, Q.B. Geng, S. Zhou, Q. Zhang & Z.J. Li,
2016, Zhonghua Yu Fang Yi Xue Za Zhi [Chinese Journal of Preventive Medicine], 50(4), 296-301
Type: article
Q. Zhang, Q.B. Geng, J.L. Sun, Z.K. Zhang, S.J. Lai, S. Zhou & Z.J. Li,
2016, Zhonghua Yu Fang Yi Xue Za Zhi [Chinese Journal of Preventive Medicine], 50(4), 302-305
Type: article
Yu-Hong Guo, Sheng-Jie Lai, Xiao-Bo Liu, Gui-Chang Li, Hong-Jie Yu & Qi-Yong Liu,
2016, Acta Tropica, 156, 17-21
Type: article
MengJie Geng, Kamran Khan, Xiang Ren, Marrhew German, Maria Creatore, Liping Wang, Zhongjie Li, Fu Gao, Shengjie Lai & Hongjie Yu,
2016, Chinese Science Bulletin [Ke xue tong bao], 61(9), 1016-1024
Type: article
Zhongjie Li, Qian Zhang, Canjun Zheng, Sheng Zhou, Junling Sun, Zike Zhang, Qibin Geng, Honglong Zhang, Liping Wang, Shengjie Lai, Wenbiao Hu, Archie C.A. Clements, Xiao-Nong Zhou & Weizhong Yang,
2016, Malaria Journal, 15(141), 1-9
Type: article
Andrea E. Gaughan, Forrest R. Stevens, Zhuojie Huang, Jeremiah J. Nieves, Alessandro Sorichetta, Shengjie Lai, Xinyue Ye, Catherine Linard, Graeme M. Hornby, Simon I. Hay, Hongjie Yu & Andrew J. Tatem,
2016, Scientific Data, 3, 1-11
DOI: 10.1038/sdata.2016.5
Type: article
Dinglun Zhou, Weizhong Yang, Qiao Sun, Shengjie Lai, Honglong Zhang, Zhongjie Li, Wei Lyu & Yajia Lan,
2016, Zhonghua Yu Fang Yi Xue Za Zhi [Chinese Journal of Preventive Medicine], 50(2), 184-187
Type: article
Ji-Xia Huang, Jin-Feng Wang, Zhong-Jie Li, Yan Wang, Shengjie Lai & Wei-Zhong Yang,
2015, PLoS ONE, 10(11), 1-17
Type: article
Xiaojuan Jiang, Shengjie Lai & Xinfeng Liu,
2015, Chinese Journal of Disease Control & Prevention, 19(7), 659-662
Type: article
External roles and responsibilities
Name:
Frontiers in Epidemiology (Journal)
Role:
Member of editorial board
Year:
2021
Name:
International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation (Journal)
Role:
Editor
Year:
2021 - 2022
Name:
Infectious Diseases of Poverty (Journal)
Role:
Member of editorial board
Year:
2021 - 2025
Name:
Mobility modelling for displacement, migration and COVID-19 using mobile phone data
Role:
Speaker
Year:
2022
Name:
Presentation for the Session: Migration in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Role:
Speaker
Year:
2021
Name:
Using phylogeographical model and mobility data to understand the spread of variants in COVID-19 resurgence, in the session of Environment and Health Research
Role:
Speaker
Year:
2021
Name:
Presenting in the session of GIScience-Informed Evaluations of COVID-19 Policy Responses
Role:
Speaker
Year:
2021
Name:
Infectious Diseases of Poverty journal - 4th online webinar (IDEA Forum)
Role:
Speaker
Year:
2021
Name:
Invited presentation in the session of Tropical Disease Situation in GMS and the Impact of COVID-19
Role:
Speaker
Year:
2020
Name:
Assessing the effects of travel and contact reductions to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic and resurgence
Role:
Speaker
Year:
2020
Name:
External examiner to examine a PhD thesis
Role:
Examiner
Year:
2020
Name:
Invited presentation for the Session: Big Data and Epidemics Response
Role:
Speaker
Year:
2020
Name:
Invited presentation in the Session: Data innovation for early warning and understanding of displacement and internal mobility
Role:
Speaker
Year:
2020
Name:
Invited talk in the Session of Ecosystem change, climate-sensitive disease, early warning and climate services
Role:
Speaker
Year:
2019
Name:
Oral and poster presentations of international travel, internal migration and disease transmission
Role:
Speaker
Year:
2019
Name:
Invited talk of the impact of seasonal population movements on mosquito-borne diseases transmission.
Role:
Speaker
Year:
2019
Name:
Presenting how population movement could be estimated to help in determining the denominator at different administrative levels
Role:
Speaker
Year:
2019
Name:
Presenting how to use mobile phone data for measuring internal migration
Role:
Speaker
Year:
2019
Name:
Invited talk of The use of mobile phone data for tourism and migration statistics
Role:
Speaker
Year:
2019
Name:
Invited presentation of exploring the use of mobile phone data for national migration statistics
Role:
Speaker
Year:
2019
Name:
Presentation of mapping population and mosquito-borne disease connectivity
Role:
Speaker
Year:
2018
Name:
Field trip of malaria surveillance and invited presentation of mapping human movements and malaria connectivity
Role:
Speaker
Year:
2018
Name:
Presenting the methodology for estimating importation and onward transmission risks of mosquito-borne diseases via air travellers
Role:
Speaker
Year:
2018
Name:
Invited talk of Modelling the spreading risk and intervention effectiveness for infectious diseases
Role:
Speaker
Year:
2022
Name:
Invited talk on Measuring human mobility, COVID-19 spread risk and intervention effectiveness
Role:
Speaker
Year:
2021
Name:
Invited talk of Measuring human mobility, COVID-19 spread risk and intervention effectiveness
Role:
Speaker
Year:
2021
Biography
Prizes
- 2021 Vice-Chancellor's Awards - Early Career (2021)
- Dean’s Prize for Research (2019)
- Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed (non-government sponsored) Students Abroad (2017)
- 2nd prize of 2016 Medical Science and Technology Award of China (2017)
- 3rd prize of 2016 Medical Science and Technology Award of China (2017)
- 2nd prize of 2016 Science and Technology Progress Award of Beijing (2016)
- 2nd prize of 2016 Science and Technology Progress Award of Beijing (2016)
- 2nd prize of 2022 Science and Technology Progress Award, Ministry of Education of P.R. China (2023)
- 2021 Vice-Chancellor's Awards - Early Career (2021)
- Dean’s Prize for Research (2019)
- Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed (non-government sponsored) Students Abroad (2017)
- 2nd prize of 2016 Medical Science and Technology Award of China (2017)
- 3rd prize of 2016 Medical Science and Technology Award of China (2017)
- 2nd prize of 2016 Science and Technology Progress Award of Beijing (2016)
- 2nd prize of 2016 Science and Technology Progress Award of Beijing (2016)
- 2nd prize of 2022 Science and Technology Progress Award, Ministry of Education of P.R. China (2023)