Navid Ghaffarzadegan (IMAGE) Virginia Tech Caption Navid Ghaffarzadegan, associate professor in the Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, developed a COVID-19 in Universities model that helped university officials at Virginia Tech and beyond make research-based policy decisions. Now, his research is focused on the impacts of human behavior in COVID-19 mortality rates. Credit Photo by Lee Friesland for Virginia Tech. Usage Restrictions Photo by Lee Friesland for Virginia Tech. License Original content Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.