Complexity Explorer Santa Few Institute

Preventing the Next Pandemic.

An introduction to influenza mitigation strategies and pandemic forecasting with Dr. Lauren Ancel Meyers. Participants will learn about basic epidemiology concepts, such as the basic reproduction number, and how these are affected by the structure of the networks in which we live. Dr. Meyers presented the lectures in this module in September 2019, at the start of flu season in the US and approximately three months before the first cases of COVID-19 were recognized in China. 

Lauren Ancel Meyers is a professor in the Departments of Integrative Biology and Statistics & Data Science at the University of Texas at Austin, where she holds the Cooley Centennial Professorship. She is a member of the Santa Fe Institute External Faculty. Professor Meyers pioneered the application of network theory and machine learning to improve the detection, forecasting and control of infectious disease epidemics. She leads an interdisciplinary team of scientists, engineers, and public health experts in uncovering the socio-biological drivers of outbreaks and building practical tools for the CDC and other global health agencies to track and mitigate emerging viral threats. She was named as one of the top 100 global innovators under age 35 by the MIT Technology Review in 2004 and received the Joseph Lieberman Award for Significant Contributions to Science in 2017. She earned a PhD in biological sciences from Stanford University and an AB in mathematics and philosophy from Harvard College.