Workshop on Mathematical Models of Climate Variability, Environmental Change and Infectious Diseases

The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) and ELSEVIER jointly organized a Workshop on Mathematical Models of Climate Variability, Environmental Change and Infectious Diseases.

Impacts to health are some of the most important outcomes of a potentially changing climate. Infectious disease outbreaks, which are often associated with climate extremes or a changing environment, heavily affect the most vulnerable; the poorest members of society in low and middle income countries in the south. In addition to major killers such as malaria, recent global health concerns include the ebola crisis and the ongoing pandemic of Zika. Understanding how environmental circumstances and changes in socio-economic factors, such as increasing population mobility, have lead to such outbreaks is key.

The first five days of the workshop component will include a series of basic and advanced lectures on the theory behind the mathematical modeling of infectious diseases, with a focus on the calibration of these models with health datasets, and, how to account for environmental factors, including climate. Lab classes will introduce the participants to hands-on practicals concerning the development of mathematical models.

Slides from the workshop are available.