Charting the Pandemic with Data Modelling — with Caroline Colijn

Below the Radar

SFU Mathematics professor Caroline Colijn joins host Am Johal to talk about the role of data modelling in the response to COVID-19. Caroline holds the Canada 150 Research Chair in Mathematics for Infection, Evolution and Public Health, and works at the intersection of mathematics and public health, with a particular focus on the spread and evolution of infectious diseases. She has been working alongside colleagues since the beginning of the pandemic, using data to mathematically model the trajectory of COVID-19 and to inform public policy. In this interview, she gives a brief overview of how we’ve arrived at this point in the pandemic here in BC. They discuss the potential benefits of prioritizing high-contact workers in the rollout of vaccines, variants of concern in BC, and what data tells us about COVID-19 spread in the weeks and months to come. Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/117-caroline-colijn.html Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/117-caroline-colijn.html Resources: — Mathematics, Genomics And Prediction In Infection And Evolution (MAGPIE) research group: https://www.sfu.ca/magpie/home.html — “SFU to lead new national infectious disease modeling network” - SFU News: http://www.sfu.ca/sfunews/stories/2021/04/sfu-to-lead-new-national-infectious-disease-modeling-network.html — “B.C. could hit 3,000 new COVID-19 cases a day if contact trends don’t go down: health officials” - Global News: https://globalnews.ca/news/7760618/british-columbia-set-to-unveil-latest-covid-19-modelling-data-thursday-afternoon/ — “Modelling shows more work needed to stop COVID from overwhelming B.C. hospitals” - The Vancouver Sun: https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/modelling-shows-more-work-needed-to-stop-covid-from-overwhelming-b-c-hospitals — “Is BC Ready for a COVID Wildfire?” - The Tyee: https://thetyee.ca/News/2021/04/09/BC-Ready-COVID-Wildfire/ — “How BC Fumbled the Third Wave” - The Tyee: https://thetyee.ca/News/2021/04/07/How-BC-Fumbled-Third-Wave/ — “Is it young people who need to focus on individual responsibility in B.C.'s pandemic, or is it John Horgan?” - CBC News: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-covid-march-circuit-lockdown-1.5969125 — “She Plots the Possible Arcs of the Pandemic” - The Tyee: https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/03/26/Pandemic-Plot-Arc/ Bio: Caroline Colijn works at the interface of mathematics, evolution, infection and public health. She joined SFU's Mathematics Department in 2018 as a Canada 150 Research Chair in Mathematics for Infection, Evolution and Public Health. She did her PhD in applied mathematics at the University of Waterloo, where she studied the foundations of quantum mechanics. She changed tack in her postdoctoral years, working on mathematical modelling with Prof. Michael Mackey at McGill and on TB modelling and epidemiology in Megan Murray's group at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Broad Institute at MIT. She moved to the Department of Engineering Mathematics in Bristol, England in 2007 and joined Imperial College London's Department of Mathematics in 2011. She has broad interests in applications of mathematics to questions in evolution and public health, and was a founding member of Imperial's Centre for the Mathematics of Precision Healthcare. Cite this episode: Chicago Style Johal, Am. “Charting the Pandemic with Data Modelling — with Caroline Colijn.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, April 20, 2021. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/117-caroline-colijn.html.