Abstract
The marriage of mathematics and epidemics has a long and distinguished history with a plethora of successes that go back to the work of Daniel Bernoulli (1700 – 1782) and Nobel Laureate and physician Sir Ronald Ross (1911) and associates. These individuals, mostly physicians, created the field of mathematical epidemiology in their efforts to meet their commitment to diminish health disparities, the consequences of poverty and the lack of access to health services. The last four decades have seen tremendous theoretical advances in the fields of computational, mathematical and theoretical epidemiology and their connections to public health policy. Advances driven by the dynamics of emergent or re-emergent diseases and concerns on their impact on health disparities. Challenges and opportunities arise from the demands generated by the study disease dynamics over multiple time scales and levels of organization; the search for response to questions of importance to the fields of public health, homeland security and evolutionary biology. In this lecture, I will revisit some of the history of the field and discuss recent applications in the context of slow and fast diseases (such as tuberculosis and Influenza); highlight the theory of single versus recurrent outbreaks while addressing challenges and opportunities. The lecture will be directed to a general audience.
Brief Biography
Carlos Castillo-Chavez is a Regents Professor and a Joaquin Bustoz Jr. Professor of Mathematical Biology at Arizona State University. He has co-authored over 200 publications. Some of the recognitions for his work include: three White House Awards (1992,1997, and 2011), the American Mathematical Society Distinguished Public Service Award and the 2007 AAAS Mentor award. He is a fellow of the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science), SIAM (Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics), AMS (American Mathematical Society), ACE (American College of Epidemiology), honorary Professorships at Xi’an Jiatong University in China and Universidad de Belgrano in Argentina. Past appointments include a Stanislaw M. Ulam Distinguished Scholar at Los Alamos National Laboratory, a Cátedra Patrimonial at UNAM in México, and a Martin Luther King Jr. Professorship at MIT. He is a member of the Board of Higher Education at the National Academy of Sciences (2009-2016) and serves in President Barack Obama Committee on the National Medal of Science (2010-2015).
Refreshments: Available in 4214 @ 2:45 pm
