The COVID-19 pandemic has seen mathematicians play an unprecedented role in our fight against the virus. Mathematicians have developed equations to understand the spreading of infection and to determine whether our hospitals could cope with the demand for intensive care beds. These equations have been instrumental in the UK government’s decision making throughout the pandemic.
But why do we need maths to understand how COVID-19 spread and how did this affect government policy? With Professor Christl Donnelly and Professor Lisa White, we are holding a series of FREE lightning talks on 17th June – 7:00-8:30pm, to try to answer these questions. Alongside the talks, a local artist will produce a live piece of art representing the evening’s events on a large canvas.
If you’re curious as to how maths can help us to understand how diseases spread, come along! The talks do not require knowledge of mathematics, and there will be free wine and canapes afterwards, along with the opportunity to meet the artist and speakers.
About the Speakers:
1. Professor Christl Donnelly CBE FMedSci FRS, Professor of Applied Statistics, Department of Statistics, University of Oxford and Professor of Statistical Epidemiology, MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, Imperial College London
Professor Christl Donnelly is a statistician and epidemiologist studying the spread and control of infectious diseases, with a particular interest in outbreaks. Christl has studied Zika virus, Ebola, MERS, influenza, SARS, bovine TB, foot-and-mouth disease, rabies, cholera, dengue, BSE/vCJD, malaria and HIV/AIDS. She is a leading member of the WHO Ebola Response Team (2014-). She was also deputy chair of the Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB (1998-2007) which designed, oversaw and analysed the Randomised Badger Culling Trial. In addition to epidemiology and disease control, she is interested in conservation and animal welfare. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and an Honorary Fellow of the Zoological Society of London. In 2002, she won the Franco-British prize for scientific research from the Académie des Sciences in Paris.
2. Professor Lisa White, Professor of Modelling and Epidemiology, Big Data Institute, University of Oxford.
Professor Lisa White is a mathematical modeller with a focus on global health and policymaking. Her work combines within- and between-host infection models with multi-strain/species modelling to consider the characterisation, emergence and spread of antimicrobial drug resistance and its containment. Her modelling work is participatory, with models for malaria, COVID-19 and other diseases being developed in close collaboration with national control programs, international decision-makers, funders and donors.
3. A group of DPhil students with diverse research experience in mathematical modelling for COVID-19 epidemiology. Specifically, they have worked on developing an accessible version of CovidSim for research and educational use. CovidSim is a model of COVID-19 dynamics produced by Neil Ferguson and colleagues at Imperial College London, which has influenced the UK government’s policy throughout the pandemic and is thought to have been instrumental in persuading the government to institute a lockdown in March 2020.
