Science Café Stellenbosch is going online with a talk by Prof Juliet Pulliam, a specialist in the modelling of infectious diseases.

Prof Pulliam is also a member of the consortium of specialists, convened by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), who has been supporting the Government and the Department of Health with weekly updates on the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa.

In her talk, Prof Pulliam will provide an overview of how models can – and can't – be used to better understand emerging diseases, with particular reference to model results for COVID-19 in South Africa.

Prof Mike Cherry, professor in Zoology at SU and former editor-in-chief of the South African Journal of Science, will lead the discussion.

Date: Thursday 11 June 2020

Time: 18:00-19:00

Click here to join the talk of RSVP by sciencecafe @sun.ac.za

More about Prof Pulliam

Prof Pulliam is director of the South African Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis (SACEMA), a center of excellence hosted at Stellenbosch University. Her research focuses on applications of mathematical modelling to applied questions in infectious disease epidemiology, particularly in resource-limited settings. Most of her work to date has focused on zoonotic and vector-borne infections, including Nipah, Japanese encephalitis, Dengue, and Ebola viruses. She holds a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Princeton University. Before she joined SACEMA in 2016, she was a faculty member in the Department of Biology and the Emerging Pathogens Institute at the University of Florida, where she was also the inaugural director of the International Clinics on Infectious Disease Dynamics and Data (ICI3D) Program from 2012-2016.

Science Café Stellenbosch is an initiative of the Faculty of Science at Stellenbosch University to promote the discussion of scientific issues in the public domain.

This event is presented in collaboration with the Development and Alumni Relations division