Adam Kucharski

Adam Kucharski is a British author and epidemiologist known for his work on infectious disease modelling and science communication. He writes non-fiction focused on epidemiology, statistics, and the dynamics of contagion. His notable books include The Rules of Contagion (2020) and Proof: The Uncertain Science of Certainty (2025). "The Rules of Contagion" was named a Science Book of the Year by The Times, The Guardian, and The Financial Times.

Adam Kucharski is currently a Professor in the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. His research applies mathematical and statistical models to investigate outbreaks and analyse how behaviour and immunity shape disease transmission.

From 2013 to 2017, he held a Medical Research Council Career Development Award in Biostatistics. Between 2014 and 2015, he paused this fellowship to support research on the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The R2HC programme funded this work. From 2017 to 2022, he was supported by a Wellcome Sir Henry Dale Fellowship.

Kucharski focuses on enhancing epidemic preparedness by leveraging the effective use of data and open-source software tools. His work includes large-scale studies of human behaviour and immunity. He has said he aims to “make better use of data and analytics for epidemic preparedness and response”.

In addition to academic research, he writes regularly about science. His articles have appeared in Wired, The Financial Times, New Scientist, Scientific American, The Times, and The Observer.

His new book, Proof: The Uncertain Science of Certainty (2025), examines how humans seek certainty and the challenges of establishing facts in complex domains. The Financial Times described the book as “the case for better evidence in post-evidence times”.

Photo credit: kucharski.io