Introduction to Mathematical Models of the Epidemiology and Control of Infectious Diseases

10 – 21 September 2012

Directed by Prof Christophe Fraser, Dr Anne Cori and Dr John Marshall
Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College London

Provisional List of Presenters

Prof Sir Roy Anderson
Prof María-Gloria Basáñez
Prof Christl Donnelly
Prof Neil Ferguson
Prof Christophe Fraser
Prof Azra Ghani
Prof Nicholas Grassly
Prof Brian Spratt 
Prof Joanne Webster

Dr Rebecca Baggaley
Dr Marie-Claude Boily
Dr Simon Cauchemez
Dr Tom Churcher
Dr Tim Hallett
Dr Déirdre Hollingsworth 
Dr Christopher Rhodes 
Dr Peter White
Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College London 

 Professor Sir Roy Anderson FRS FMedSci

Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology
Rector, Imperial College London

Prof Anderson’s research interests are in epidemiology, transmissi on dynamics and control of a wide variety of infectious agents, ranging from HIV, via the parasitic infections, to livestock disea ses such as SARS , Foot and Mouth and BSE. He is co-author with Robert May of the text book “Infectious diseases of humans: transmission dynamics and control” Oxford University Press (1991), and has published extensively on many different aspects of infectious disease transmission, evolution and control.

Professor Maria-Gloria Basanez

Professor of Neglected Tropical Diseases

Prof Basáñez’s research interests are the population biology and epidemiology of arthropod-borne infectious diseases, in particular human onchocerciasis; helminth epidemiology and control; and the synthesis of field data, plus statistical analysis. She is also using mathematical modelling to further understand the population dynamics of macroparasites and the effect of control interventions on these dynamics.

Professor Christl Donnelly

Professor of Stati stical Epidemiology
Deputy Chairman of the Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB

Prof Donnelly’s research interests are in the synthesis of statistical and biomathematical methods for the analysis of epidemiological patterns of infectious diseases. She is particularly interested in the epidemiology of Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumour Disease, SAR S, transmissible spongiform encephalopathies - TSEs - (particularly BSE, vCJD and scrapie), foot and mouth disease (FMD), bovine TB (in cattle and badgers) and HIV/AIDS.

Professor Neil Ferguson OBE FMedSci

Professor of Mathematical Biology
Director, MRC Centre for Outbreak Analysis & Modelling
Member, UK Dept . of Health’s Science Advisory Group for Pandemic Influenza Planning
Member, Science Advisory Council for UK Dept. of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Prof Ferguson has a broad interest in the epidemiology, population dynamics, and evolution of infectious diseases, and in developing statistical techniques for analy sing disease data. His research includes work on influenza, SARS, antigenically-variable pathogens, foot and mouth disease, BSE and vCJD, HIV and bioterrorist agents. Recent work has particularly focused on outbreak modeling and pandemic prepared ness.

Prof Christophe Fraser

Professor in Theoretical Biology & Royal Society University Research Fel low
Deputy Director, MRC Centre for Outbreak Analysis & Modelling

Prof Fraser’s research interests are broadly in infection dynamics and evolution. He has an active interest in infectious disease outbreak dynamics, the likely impact of public health measures and methods for the rapid estimation of key parameters. He has recently worked on SARS, influenza, HIV and polio. He is also interested in bacterial population genetics, and the interface between evolution and epidemiology.

Professor Azra Ghani 

Prof Ghani's research combines the use of mathematical models and statistical methods to explore the impact of interventions against infections of humans and animals, with a focus on results which can inform policy. She has in the past worked on a range of infectious diseases including sexually transmitted infections/HIV, BSE/vCJD, SARS and influenza. Her current focus is on developing and applying models to inform malaria control and elimination.

Professor Nick Grassly

Prof Grassly is interested in identifying and estimating behavioural, biological and environmental parameters important for observed dynamics of infectious diseases. A central t heme is the analysis of routine disease surveillance data using mathematical models and statistical methods to test hypotheses about disease transmission and the effectiveness of control. His research aims to be relevant to policy, with a particular focus on sexually transmitted infections, polio and trachoma.

Professor Brian Spratt CBE FRS FMedSci

Prof Spratt has worked on the mechanism of action of penicillin and identified the physiological targets of penicillin action (penicillin-binding proteins). He has also worked on resistance to ß-lactam antibiotics, particularly resistance mediated by alterations of the penicillin-binding proteins. Currently he is interested in the evolutionary and population biology of major bacterial pathogens and in multilocus sequence-based methods for the unambiguous characterisation of major bacterial pathogens on the internet (MLST).

Professor Joanne Webster

  Professor of Parasite Epidemiology and Royal Society University Research Fellow

 The main focus of Prof Webster’s research is to identify and characterise the mechanisms and implications of host-schistos ome coevolution, th rough a combination of both large scale field-based studies across Africa and Asia, and tightly controlled experiments and manipulation within the labor atory. She is also the Director of research surveillance fo r the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative. In addition, Prof Webster is involved in a range of othe r host-parasite interaction studies, including that on Toxoplasma gondii and bovine tuberculosis.