RSS Epidemics Workshop 1997

Organisers Valerie Isham (UCL, London) valerie@stats.ucl.ac.uk
and Denis Mollison (Heriot-Watt) denis@ma.hw.ac.uk

Aims Format Topics Programme Abstracts Participants Information

This workshop (full title `Stochastic Modelling and Statistical Data Analysis for Epidemics') is the second in the revived research workshop series sponsored by the Royal Statistical Society, with the aim of `helping to foster sound and relevant statistical research within the UK'. Like the first, on Stochastic Networks, it is supported financially by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

The workshop is being held at the Gaelic College on the Isle of Skye, Sabhal Mor Ostaig, from Monday 31st March to Saturday 12th April 1997.

Aims

The impact of infectious diseases on human, animal and plant populations (where the latter two may be either wild or managed) is enormous, both in terms of suffering and in terms of social and economic consequences. Mathematical modelling is an essential tool in studying a diverse range of such diseases. Basic aims in studying their spread, both in time and in space, are to gain a better understanding of transmission mechanisms and those features that are most influential in that spread, so as to enable predictions to be made, and to determine and evaluate control strategies. In this latter area, mathematical models have a particularly important role to play in making public health decisions about the control of infectious diseases better informed and more objective.

Collaboration between theoreticians and applied workers is vital, to ensure that mathematicians continue to tackle problems of genuine applied interest, and that data are effectively collected and analysed to maximise the available empirical information about the processes under study. The present workshop therefore aims to foster interdisciplinary collaborations, with particular emphasis on relations between stochastic modelling (in the broad sense, from probabilistic models to data analysis) and the biological sciences.

Format

The format is that of an extended research workshop, starting with surveys of four key research areas

  1. Heterogeneity of mixing and spatio-temporal models
  2. Genetic, ecological and evolutionary dynamics
  3. Immuno-epidemiology
  4. Statistical issues
from both applied and modelling viewpoints. There will also be a wide range of short papers, and plenty of opportunities for constructive interaction and small group discussions, so as to encourage new collaborations and research ideas to develop.

Top of page Topics Programme Abstracts Participants Information

Please send any comments or corrections to Denis Mollison

22nd March 1997