People of the Galvani Group
Postdoctoral Researchers
Katie Atkins
Katie Atkins received her PhD from the University of Edinburgh, UK in 2010. She is interested in modeling the role of virulence evolution in epidemiology. In particular, she is concerned with how pathogens are able to evolve in response to changing host ecology and human interventions. Her PhD was looking at the role that vaccination and agricultural practices may have played in selecting for increased virulence in the poultry industry. She explores these ideas with a variety of data-driven mathematical and statistical frameworks.
Martial Ndeffo
Martial Ndeffo received his PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK in
2010. His thesis was on optimization of epidemic control under economic
constraints. Dr. Ndeffo is a mathematical theoretical biologist who is
interested in combining epidemiological, ecological, and economic modeling to develop theoretical frameworks to help improve public policies.
David Durham
David Durham received his PhD in Engineering & Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University in 2010. His dissertation involved mathematical analysis of urban bubonic plague dynamics and agent-based modeling of human behavioral adaptation to SARS and H1N1 influenza. Dr. Durham is interested in modeling the long-term influence of changing demographics and climate on global health. He is currently researching the influence of climate change and water insecurity on tropical dengue risk, and is exploring the important factors in emergent viral evolution through computational modeling.
Graduate Students
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Meagan Fitzpatrick
Meagan Fitzpatrick is a graduate student from the division of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases. She is interested in the study of infectious disease control strategies, particularly for vector-borne and zoonotic diseases, and in the ways by which the ecology of such diseases influences the course of epidemics. Her primary research involves a comparison of the cost-effectiveness of various control strategies for canine rabies in a multi-host system in Tanzania. She graduated with a B.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of Notre Dame (IN) in 2006 and joined the Galvani lab in 2009.
Katherine J. Skene
Katherine Skene received her MPH in Biostatistics from the Yale School of Public Health in 2009, her BA in Industrial Economics from the University of Nottingham Business School, UK, in 2006, and has a background in pharmaceutical clinical trial management and analysis. Her interests range through epidemiological modeling, biostatistics and econometrics. Current projects include describing a marginal benefit function for the influenza vaccination of 'superspreaders', retrospective assessment of the effects of vaccination upon the 2009-2010 H1N1 influenza pandemic, and exploration of the effects of underlying spatial population distribution upon the percolation threshold for plague (Yersinia pestis). Her PhD thesis aims to utilize spatial statistics and epidemiological modeling techniques, in combination with novel data sources, to explore interactions between geographic space, social space, and disease transmission dynamics. This work is designed to improve the parameterization of social mixing in network models of infectious disease.
Jennifer Gilbert
Jennifer is currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at Yale’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. She is interested in using epidemiological models of disease transmission to examine public health interventions, including their effects on epidemics as well as their cost effectiveness. Jennifer is also interested in comparing individual and societal health outcomes to determine optimal public health strategies. She received her B.S. from Duke University and M.P.H. from the Yale School of Public Health.
Associate
David Paltiel
Professor Paltiel is an expert in the field of operations research and disease simulation modeling. He conducts cost-effectiveness analyses on a variety of medical technologies and public health activities. His current research focuses on model-based evaluation of HIV/AIDS testing, prevention, treatment, and care in vulnerable and underserved populations in the United States and abroad. He has served as a member of the editorial boards of both Medical Decision Making and Value in Health.
Alumni
Kristina Talbert-Slagle
Kristina Talbert-Slagle received her Ph.D. in 2010 from the Yale University School of Public Health, Division of Epidemiology of Microbial Disease. She joins the Galvani lab as a Global Health Postdoctoral Fellow with the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale. Dr. Talbert-Slagle conducted her dissertation research in the laboratory, studying the cellular and molecular interactions that contribute to HIV persistence as well as mechanisms of cell transformation and carcinogenesis caused by papillomaviruses. She will employ her understanding of molecular biology to create mathematical models of within-host infectious disease dynamics, initially by exploring the effect of the innate immune response on viral replication during the earliest days of HIV infection.
Yoko Ibuka
Yoko Ibuka received a Ph.D. in Economics from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, in May 2008 and joined Galvani group in July 2008. She is interested in the application of economic analysis to study issues in health and medicine. Currently, her research focuses on the analysis regarding interventions and policies for infectious diseases. Her other research interests include the technical aspects of the analysis. This is an extension of her doctoral work that developed a Bayesian approach to model patient-level dependence in cost-effectiveness analysis.
Jingzhou Liu
Jingzhou Liu received his Ph.D. from the Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics at Cornell University in Aug 2009. Before he went to Cornell, he spent 7 years in Beijing Normal University, where he obtained both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics. His research interests lie in the application of mathematical modeling and computer simulation to solving the problems in physics, epidemiology, economics and finance. Currently, he is working on two projects: game-theoretic modeling of chickenpox vaccination and imitation dynamics of vaccination on social networks.
Yonas Tekle
Yonas Tekle received his PhD and postdoctoral training in the study of comparative systematics (morphological and molecular) of medical and non-medical microbes. He used genome data to understand the diversity and relationships of living organisms. Dr. Tekle is extremely fascinated by interdisciplinary research approaches in answering challenging questions that affect our everyday life. He is particularly interested in integrating bioinformatics with mathematical modeling in order to understand the evolution and epidemics of infectious diseases. His current project includes understanding the evolution and transmission dynamics of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) within and beyond hospitals.
Eunha Shim
Eunha Shim received a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Arizona State University in March 2007. Dr.Shim's research interests are in mathematical biology, especially modeling infectious diseases, pathogen evolution and the application of game theory. Dr.Shim's research employs mathematics to create qualitative and quantitative predictions of epidemiology and evolutionary problems. Dr. Shim's work often uses interdisciplinary approaches, integrating epidemiology, behavioral science, mathematics, and economics. Currently, Dr.Shim's studies consist of a variety of subjects, from more theoretical work (e.g. the pathogens' strategies to increase transmission fitness and the impact of asymptomatic malaria on the evolution of resistance) to more practical projects on influenza. Dr. Shim's recent studies include optimal H1N1 vaccination strategies from individual versus community perspectives, and social distancing during pandemic influenza.
Sanjay Basu
Sanjay is interested in evaluating clinical interventions against infectious diseases using operations research methods and epidemic models. He received his undergraduate training at M.I.T. and his Master's degree from Oxford. He is currently in the M.D./Ph.D. program at Yale.
Beth Kochin
Beth graduated with a double major in Applied Mathematics and Biology in 2007. For her senior thesis, she explored childhood disease vaccination from a game theoretic perspective. She is interested in using mathematical models to study the ecology and evolution of infectious disease. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Biology at Emory University.
Paula Luz
Paula Luz is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Public Health, Yale University. She is interested in the integration of ecology and epidemiology for the study of vector-borne diseases, especially dengue. The focus is comparative analysis of control strategies. She received her M.D. from Fluminense Federal University in 2002, and her M.Sc. from Rio de Janeiro State Universtiy in 2005.
Jan Medlock
Dr. Medlock received his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from the University of Washington in 2004. His thesis was on models for the spatial spread of infectious diseases. In addition to spatial models, he is interested in sexually transmitted infections, transgenetic strategies for vector-transmitted diseases, and other epidemiological and ecological problems. Jan was a National Institute of Mental Health postdoctoral fellow at the Yale Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS from 2005–2007 and a postdoctoral associate 2004–2005 and 2007–2008. He is currently an assistant professor of mathematical sciences at Clemson University.
Evan Orenstein
Evan Orenstein is a senior majoring in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. He is interested in exploring how mathematical models can guide clinical decision making and public health policy. Currently, he is working on a clinical decision rule to determine appropriate empiric treatment of HIV-TB coinfected patients in a setting with high TB drug resistance. In his spare time, he devotes himself to juggling 5 balls and the quest to eat two whole pizzas.
Eric Poolman
Dr. Poolman received his M.D. from the Yale School of Medicine, and his M.B.A. from Yale School of Management, in 2005. He is interested in the epidemiological modeling of health policies regarding infectious disease, particularly the perverse effects when interactions between pathogens and between individual pathogen strains are taken into account. His recent and current work is on human papillomavirus, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, and H.I.V. He is currently doing a family practice residency at the Ventura County Medical Center.
Tim Reluga
Dr. Reluga is a mathematical theoretical biologist interested in problems in immunology, ecology, and population biology in general. Notable examples of his work include the game theory of vaccination choices, the spatial spread of epidemics, and the theory of antibiotic resistance control.
Tim was born and raised in central Connecticut, the son of a high school English teacher and a high school biology teacher. He completed his undergraduate studies at Tufts University, where he was a double major in biology and mathematics. He did undergraduate research in both areas. Upon completing his undergraduate studies, Tim enrolled in the University of Washington's doctoral program in Applied Mathematics. His doctoral dissertation developed several new approaches for the study of spatial and temporal heterogeneity in population ecology.
Following the completion of his degree, Tim spent two years studying epidemiology in the Galvani lab, and a year in the Perelson group at Los Alamos. He is currently an assistant professor of mathematics at the Pennsylvania State University.
Dave Thomas
Dave recently completed his MPH at the Yale school of Epidemiology and Public Health. Before pursuing his MPH, he worked for a decade in and around San Francisco as a programmer and systems developer, in both the private and non-profit sectors. He is interested in applying his technical capacity building skills to international health problems.