COVID-19 Data Science Webinar Series

Betz Halloran and Natalie Dean participated in the first webinar of a new series on COVID-19 Data Science. This Zoom event was extremely popular, with nearly 650 people logging in, according to the organizers.

Read a write-up of the event here, as well as a recording on YouTube.

The COPSS-NISS COVID-19 Data Science webinar series is co-organized by the Committee of the Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS) and its five charter member societies (ASA, ENAR, IMS, SSC, and WNAR), as well as NISS. This bi-weekly seminar features the latest research that is positioned on the cusp of new understanding and analysis of COVID-19 pandemic data, and promotes data-driven research and decision making to combat COVID-19. Find out more about this series and view all the previous sessions on the Webinar Series page.

Alex Vespignani receives 2020 Euler Prize

The Network Science Society awarded this year’s Euler Prize to Alex Vespignani. He was recognized for his “foundational role in the field of network epidemiology, and his discovery of the impact of heterogeneous structured populations on disease dynamics”.

Congratulations, Alex!

SISMID awarded 5-year funding from NIH

The Summer Institute in Statistics and Modeling in Infectious Diseases (SISMID) will continue for the next several years, thanks to a 5-year grant awarded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). CIDID Director Betz Halloran is the Director and Founder of SISMID.

This year all courses were held online due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. There was significant interest from all around the world, and classes quickly filled to capacity.

Congratulations Betz, and the SISMID instructors and team at the University of Washington Biostatistics Department!

SISMID 2009 - 2020 commemorative mugs and t-shirts available to order

Commemorative SISMID mugs and t-shirts are available for anyone to order online!

Participants in the Summer Institute in Statistics and Modeling in Infectious Diseases (SISMID) typically receive a mug representing the year that they attended. In 2020, all courses are online, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

SISMID and CIDID Director Betz Halloran decided to keep the mug tradition going, and requested Nicole Samay’s help with the design. Nicole is a graphic designer working with Alex Vespignani’s team at Northeastern University.

This year’s mug commemorates 12 years of SISMID, from pandemic H1N1 in 2009 to pandemic COVID-19 in 2020. Nicole created a fantastic design!

T-shirts are also available to order. CIDID does not receive any money from the orders.

Mug order instructions: [pdf]

T-shirt order instructions: [pdf]

Betz Halloran elected to Washington State Academy of Sciences

CIDID Director Betz Halloran is one of 21 people joining the 2020 class of new members elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences (WSAS). The members are recognized for their “outstanding record of scientific and technical achievement and their willingness to work on behalf of the Academy to bring the best available science to bear on issues within the state of Washington”, according to a WSAS press release issued on July 15, 2020.

Betz was selected by virtue of her election to the National Academy of Medicine in 2019.

Betz Halloran interviewed on PBS NewsHour

PBS NewsHour science correspondent Miles O'Brien reported on the complexities of modeling a new virus. CIDID Director Betz Halloran is interviewed in his segment: "What computer-based models can tell us about coronavirus — and what they can’t". 

SISMID registration now open! Online classes for 2020

The 12th Summer Institute in Statistics and Modeling in Infectious Diseases is now open for registration! Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, classes this year are offered as an online format.

Graduate students and postdocs are eligible to apply for scholarships.

Application deadline is May 30.

Betz Halloran featured in Business Insider

CIDID Director Betz Halloran was recently interviewed by Business Insider, resulting in the three articles published below.

One key figure helps countries decide when their coronavirus outbreaks are over — but scientists say it's a moving target.

The US is 'a long way' from beating the coronavirus with herd immunity, experts say, since that would require 50% of the population being immune.

To know the real number of coronavirus cases in the US, China, or Italy, researchers say multiply by 10.

Life Science Washington hosts free COVID-19 webinar on April 23

CIDID Director Betz Halloran joins Drs. Jeff Duchin and Keith Jerome in a free webinar at 3:00pm (Pacific Time) on April 23:

“Emerging from COVID-19: A Ground-Zero Perspective from Washington's Life Sciences.”

The webinar is hosted by Life Science Washington and will be moderated by Luke Timmerman.

Registration is required: visit the event website to register.

Northeastern team led by Alex Vespignani one of groups advising White House on COVID-19

Alex Vespignani and his team at Northeastern University’s Network Science Institute are one of several groups creating models used by the White House in preparing guidelines for the COVID-19 outbreak.

The team has developed a new website for this purpose:

Modeling COVID-19 in the United States.

The projections are based on the Global Epidemic and Mobility Model (GLEAM), an individual-based, stochastic, and spatial epidemic model.

Collaborators include CIDID members and others from the institutions below.

Fred Hutch: Betz Halloran

University of Florida: Ira Longini, Natalie Dean

NIH Fogarty Institute: Cecile Viboud, Kaiyuan Sun

ISI Foundation: Maria Litvinova, Corrado Gioannini, Luca Rossi

Bruno Kessler Foundation: Marco Ajelli

Northeastern team members: Alex Vespignani, ‍Matteo Chinazzi‍, Jessica T. Davis, Kunpeng Mu, Ana Pastore y Piontti, Nicole Samay‍‍, Xinyue Xiong

Read the Northeastern news article here.

MOBS Lab creates new website for 2019 nCoV analysis

The Laboratory for the Modeling of Biological and Socio-technical Systems (MOBS), led by Alex Vespignani, has published a website focusing on the analysis of the 2019 nCoV outbreak. Information is updated frequently as new information becomes available.

URL: https://www.mobs-lab.org/2019ncov.html

Collaborators include CIDID members Betz Halloran and Ira Longini, as well as others from Northeastern University, NIH Fogarty Institute, ISI Foundation, and the Bruno Kessler Foundation.

The research was cited in the January 23, 2020 WHO Situation Report.

Pej Rohani named University of Georgia Regents' Professor

Pej Rohani is one of two professors named Regents’ Professors for research that is recognized both nationally and internationally as innovative and pace-setting.

To read the full news article from UGA Today, click here.

Congratulations, Pej!