13:45-15:00 – Session 2: Learning from models of pandemics of the past and the future

Session Info

Historical records allow us to reconstruct patterns of disease spread in the past, in some cases going back hundreds of years.  The questions we can address depend on the available data, which has varied enormously over time.  Dr. David Earn presented data, going back as far as 1348, which he has acquired and studied at McMaster in the last few years.  He discussed insights obtained from mathematical modelling inspired by these data, and opportunities we have to improve our understanding of plague, influenza, COVID-19, and other diseases that have caused -- or have the potential to cause -- pandemics.

Invited Speaker

David Earn, McMaster University

David Earn is a Professor of Mathematics and the Faculty of Science Research Chair in Mathematical Epidemiology at McMaster University. His primary research interests are in infectious disease dynamics, from the time of the Black Death to the present.

He was an undergraduate in mathematics at the University of Toronto, and received his PhD in theoretical astrophysics from the University of Cambridge, where he was a Commonwealth Scholar and held an Isaac Newton Studentship. As a postdoctoral fellow in Cambridge and Princeton, he shifted focus to biological problems, especially the epidemiology of infectious diseases.

He is a recipient of a CIHR New Investigator Award, an Ontario Premierʼs Research Excellence Award, the Canadian Applied and Industrial Mathematics Society Research Award, and is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.  He is a member of the executive committee of the M. G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research at McMaster, and co-leads the Canadian Network for Modelling Infectious Diseases (CANMOD, https://canmod.net/).

Web site: http://davidearn.mcmaster.ca

Panel Discussion

Moderator: David Fisman, IfP Readiness Theme Lead, Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Panelists: