The promotion was granted with the full support of his colleagues. It recognizes the quality of his research and the regard in which he is held by the people who work with him.
His research spans disease-informed neural networks, multi-scale modelling and spatial epidemiology, along with the other areas the lab works on. Just as important are his commitment to teaching, the time he gives to his students, and his service to the department and the wider community.
The recognition also reflects the work of the whole lab: the students, postdoctoral fellows and collaborators who contributed to the research behind it.
Congratulations, Prof. Assefa. We are proud to work with you and grateful for your guidance.
The lab is growing, with new students and collaborators joining. Work continues on disease-informed neural networks, multi-scale and mechanistic modelling, spatial epidemiology and machine-learning methods for disease dynamics, and we look forward to the papers and collaborations still to come under Prof. Assefa’s leadership.
]]>Plenary speakers included Morgan Craig (Université de Montréal), Dimitri Breda (Università degli Studi di Udine), Renato Calleja (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México), Sue Ann Campbell (University of Waterloo) and Bernd Krauskopf (University of Auckland). Their talks ranged from immune regulation after viral infection and vaccination, through Hopf bifurcation and synchronization, to resonances in climate models of El Niño.
A theme running through the meeting was the versatility of delay differential equations. In models of infectious disease, immune responses, neural networks, ecology and climate, building in time delays often gives a more realistic picture of complex real-world processes.
]]>Our role. The DIMMS Lab can host the outgoing phase (12 to 24 months) of a Global Postdoctoral Fellowship. Canada is a non-associated Third Country under Horizon Europe, which makes York University an eligible host. After the outgoing phase, fellows complete a mandatory 12-month return phase at a European institution of their choice. The fellowship is funded in full by the European Commission through Horizon Europe.
Prof. Woldegebriel Assefa Woldegerima will act as supervisor and will work closely with interested applicants to develop a competitive joint proposal.
Email Prof. Woldegerima at wassefaw@yorku.ca with your CV and a short statement of your research interests and how they connect with the lab’s work. Please write well before the deadline so that there is time to build a strong proposal together.
]]>The paper, “Modular arithmetic as an alternative to model seasonal time-varying transmission rates: Influenza as a case study”, uses modular arithmetic to describe how transmission rates change with the seasons.
The method is an alternative to the conventional ways of capturing the periodic behaviour of seasonal diseases such as influenza. It is compact and computationally inexpensive, which makes it straightforward to build seasonality into epidemiological models.
Congratulations to Prof. Woldegerima and Nickson on this publication.
]]>“Assessing the impact of vaccination and behavioural change on Mpox transmission in high-risk groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo using an age-structured mathematical model” looks at how vaccination and behaviour-driven contact reduction among high-risk adults work together, within an age- and risk-structured modelling framework.
The study provides evidence for allocating vaccine and prioritizing behavioural interventions among high-risk groups, with the aim of preventing sustained transmission in the DRC.
Congratulations to the whole team on this publication.
]]>Sherif presented “A mechanistic stage-structured model for estimating maturation, mortality, and recruitment parameters of three economically significant fish species in Canadian waters”.
The study analyzes discrete-time, stage-structured models to estimate key life-history parameters for Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), capelin (Mallotus villosus) and cod (Gadus morhua). It examines the well-posedness of the model, the net reproductive number and the global stability of equilibria, and draws out what these mean for fisheries management.
His research interests include mathematical biology, data analytics and population dynamics.
]]>The meeting brought together the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) and the Canadian Applied and Industrial Mathematics Society (CAIMS). It gave our members the chance to present their research, meet colleagues and hear about recent advances in applied and computational mathematics.
Thank you to Andrew and Qi for representing the lab.
]]>“Uncovering the impact of infection routes on within-host MPXV dynamics: Insights from a mathematical modeling study” adds to the lab’s ongoing work in computational biology and within-host modelling.
Congratulations to Dr. Deng on this publication.
]]>The work combines machine learning with epidemiological knowledge to improve disease forecasting. It builds the principles of mathematical epidemiology into neural network architectures that model the spread of infectious disease.
Congratulations to Nickson on this publication.
]]>The first, in PLOS ONE, maps the geographical distribution of mpox in Ontario and examines how socio-environmental indicators relate to its incidence. The second, in BMJ Global Health, is a systematic review and meta-analysis of the risk factors associated with human mpox infection.
Congratulations to Dr. Ugwu on both publications.
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