Emma Hodcroft (born 1986) is a British-American[1] molecular epidemiologist at the Institute for Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of Bern.

Her thesis looked for evidence of adaptive selection in Drosophila, by comparing the rate of changes across tissue types, periods of time, and between immune-related and non-immune related functions.

[17][18] Hodcroft's research has focused on computational methods of tracking genetic changes in pathogens and their impact on disease and epidemiological dynamics.

Her work included expanding Nextstrain to efficiently analyze bacterial pathogens, which have significantly larger genomes than viruses.

Hodcroft's research then focused on Enterovirus D68, the virus implicated in outbreaks of a polio-like disorder called acute flaccid myelitis.

[12][13][14] Early in the pandemic, Hodcroft became intrigued by how a lone traveler from Singapore could have trigger a rash of cases in the United Kingdom.

She posted an infographic on Twitter tracking the spread from the Singapore traveler, to fellow guests at a ski chalet in Switzerland, to the outbreak in the UK.

[23] Over the following months, phylogenetic analysis and open science platforms like Nextstrain played a key role in efforts to understand the epidemic.

[26][27] Hodcroft has written about the round-the-clock nature of gathering, analyzing, error-checking, and annotating the flood of genomic data from around the world.

[clarification needed] It pointed out that much of the genetic tracking of SARS-CoV-2 had not been performed by public health authorities, but rather by mid-career academics who set aside their own research to help the pandemic efforts.