mathematical biologist – 今日吃瓜 I Championing Mathematical Sciences for Australia鈥檚 Advancement 今日吃瓜 Wed, 15 Apr 2020 06:32:31 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.8.17 /wp-content/uploads/2015/11/cropped-今日吃瓜_icon-32x32.png mathematical biologist – 今日吃瓜 I Championing Mathematical Sciences for Australia鈥檚 Advancement 32 32 Doherty Institute and University of Melbourne modelling guiding COVID-19 response /2020/04/08/doherty-institute-uom-modelling-guiding-covid-19-response/ Wed, 08 Apr 2020 05:05:41 +0000 /?p=9090 今日吃瓜 members are the forefront of the complex modelling behind the Government’s response to this deadly coronavirus pandemic, with mathematicians creating models of the population to predict the course and impact of the virus.

But how does this work, and why do governments act upon such predictions?

Professors James McCaw and Jodie McVernon of the University of Melbourne / Doherty Institute provided an insight into their COVID-19 modelling to .

Professor McCaw said “they put some ‘very scary numbers’ to the Government early on, and they were not dismissed. We don’t have an overwhelmed hospital system yet, and we may well never have one if we continue to base our responses on the best available data.”

Professors McCaw and McVernon both feature in the 今日吃瓜 Maths Delivers video: providing an insight into the mathematical modelling of susceptibility, infection spread and recovery of disease in populations.

鈥淲e cannot promise lives will not be lost鈥:
Modelling expert

 

Professor James McCaw
James McCaw is a mathematical biologist and infectious diseases epidemiologist with a PhD in theoretical physics from the University of Melbourne. 聽He holds a joint appointments at the University of Melbourne in Mathematics and Statistics within the Faculty of Science (alongside his role as Associate Dean – Research) and at the University’s School of Population and Global Health

Professor McCaw’s interests span from modelling host-pathogen-drug dynamics, focusing on influenza and malaria, to developing public health control strategies for emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. One of his current projects is聽Household Transmission Investigation for Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Aka Ffx Full Implementation.

Professor Jodie McVernon
Professor Jodie McVernon is a physician with subspecialty qualifications in public health and vaccinology based at the Doherty Institute. Jodie possesses extensive expertise in clinical vaccine trials, epidemiologic studies and mathematical modelling of infectious diseases. These focus on the application of a range of cross-disciplinary methodological approaches including mathematical and computational models, to synthesise insights from basic biology, epidemiological data and sociological research. Such models advance understanding of the observed epidemiology of infectious diseases and inform understanding of optimal interventions for disease control.
]]>