The mathematical epidemiology of infectious diseases in laypeople’s terms (kinda)
I’ve been a mathematical modeler all my life, even if my brothers are much, much better at complex mathematical models (both of my brothers are academics too). My undergraduate honors thesis was a mathematical model of wastewater treatment plants using activated sludge. My MBA thesis was a game-theoretical model of strategic alliances, and in my PhD dissertation, I used mathematical models of industry decline and firm demographics. I’ve been fascinated by the mathematical epidemiology of infectious diseases for a long time, not surprising since my former PhD advisor has done some work on mathematical modeling of malaria and HIV spread.
A very close friend of mine (who also did her PhD under my PhD supervisor) did learn some mathematical epidemiology and I always harboured a little bit of envy because she knows more about how to model spread of infectious diseases. Unfortunately, it’s not like I have the time to really study this area. But I’m still fascinated by it. So I decided to search (in the spare time while I was travelling back from dropping off my Mom at the airport) on a primer on mathematical epidemiology.
And I found one. A primer on mathematical epidemiology that is ALMOST easy to absorb by lay people. It’s developed by Dr. David Earns from McMaster University. And not surprisingly, he learned about mathematical epidemiology because of his wife. Love makes people do a lot. I learned Japanese for the same reason. At any rate, here is Dr. Earn’s introduction to mathematical epidemiology: A Light Introduction to Modelling Recurrent Epidemics.
Two Mexicans are world-renowned as well in modeling infectious diseases: Dr. Carlos Castillo-Chavez and Dr. Gerardo Chowell-Puente. I know for a fact (because I’ve collaborated with scholars at the National Institute of Public Health in Mexico) that Mexican epidemiologists are top-notch, and I’m keen to find out more about mathematical epidemiology (whenever I find some time!)
Related posts:
I didn’t know you were a mathematical modeler. I worked with some recently and figure that with the basic skills, you can transfer it to different disciplines. I probably should have known about Dr. Earn’s book. He is a mathematical modeler so are you saying that he learned about modeling a really long time ago when he would have met his wife?
A really interesting and fun read is Robert Smith?’s zombie attack modeling paper (http://www.mathstat.uottawa.ca/~rsmith/Zombies.pdf).
Hi Kay,
I have been a mathematical modeler for most of my professional life. People don’t often know this about me, so that’s why I blogged about it.
From what I read on his bio, Earn learned game theory and other skills applied to theoretical biology (he was an astrophysicist) because his wife asked him for help to solve a problem. Coincidentally, I learned Japanese to help my former partner with a Masters of Arts in Japanese History. The things we do for our loved ones.