Minicourse on Epidemic Modeling for Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention

Organized by Joshua Weitz  | São Paulo, Brazil  | October 16-19, 2023

The Covid-19 pandemic catalyzed an expansion in the size, scope, and relevance of epidemic modeling. In many cases, mathematical models became part of public health responses, shaping forecasting and decision making involved with interventions. Yet, integrating epidemic models in practice remains challenging, in part because transmission is shaped by pathogen dynamics and human behavior. This minicourse provided students and early career researchers an opportunity to learn the principles of epidemic model development along with recent advances in analyzing coupled disease-behavior dynamics, methods for model-data integration at scale, and ongoing challenges in utilizing mathematical models for pandemic prevention.

This one week school included a crash course in epidemic modeling suitable for those from other areas (mathematics, physics, engineering, computing) and for those from biology and public health who want to integrate quantitative modeling into their research. Lectures were supplemented by hands-on computational sessions to help course participants translate concepts into practice (computational sessions available in both Python and R).