This award will fund a workshop, co-organized by the Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science (DIMACS) and the South African DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Epidemiological Modeling and Analysis, to be held at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, on September 26-28, 2006. In recent years, mathematical modeling of infectious diseases has had an increasing influence on the theory and practice of disease management, for instance in connection with HIV/AIDS, foot-and-mouth disease, SARS, and vaccine-preventable diseases such as polio. Diseases in Africa provide complex challenges for mathematical modeling. Model builders in the US need data to parameterize their models and the best way to get that data is to work directly with African data gatherers and modelers. The result will be better understanding of African disease management and more practical models for controlling diseases posing a threat to Africa, the US and the world. To foster progress in this direction, the workshop will explore modeling of vaccination strategies and mathematical modeling issues arising from such key diseases of Africa as HIV/AIDS and malaria, with some emphasis on modeling issues arising from co-infection by HIV/tuberculosis and HIV/malaria. There will be discussion of models connecting climate and disease. These issues, especially germane to Africa, should lead to progress on mathematical modeling with broad applicability. The workshop will also explore modeling issues arising from the threat of emerging diseases in resource-poor countries, especially relevant to the threats from avian or pandemic influenza. Diseases common to humans and animals, such as avian flu and tuberculosis, will also be studied.
The workshop invitees include mathematical modelers and disease experts from the US and Africa, as well as a dozen US graduate students and their African counterparts, thus helping students put their research within an international context. Partnerships with four historically Black colleges and universities (Clark Atlanta, Howard, Morgan State, North Carolina A&T) will help DIMACS to recruit a diverse set of students to participate in the meeting. A partnership with the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences will enable the workshop organizers to involve African students and African researchers from across the continent. The workshop will open up lines of communication between US and African scientists, better enable the US scientists to understand disease transmission in different settings in Africa, provide contacts for future data and interpretation, and contribute to Africa's knowledge and human resources for fighting disease on the continent.
This award is co-funded by the Division of Mathematical Sciences and the Division of Information and Intelligent Systems.
