Infectious Insights: Data, Mathematics, and Preventing the Next Pandemic

The President’s Faculty Lectures shine a light on the research excellence at Simon Fraser University. Hosted by SFU President Joy Johnson, these free public lectures celebrate cutting-edge research and researchers that engage with communities and mobilize knowledge to make real-world impacts.

The theme of this year’s lectures is Making a Difference for B.C. Approaching this theme from a variety of disciplines, each short lecture will be followed by a conversation with Joy Johnson and an audience Q&A session.  

Save the date for more upcoming President's Faculty Lectures!

• February 13, 2024: Victoria E. Thomas – Assistant Professor, School of Communication
• March 12, 2024: Wenona Hall – Associate Professor, Department of Indigenous Studies
• April 30, 2024: Bohdan Nosyk - Professor, St. Paul's Hospital CANFAR Chair in HIV/AIDS Research, Faculty of Health Sciences

Dr. Caroline Colijn's work is at the interface of mathematics and the epidemiology and evolution of pathogens. She holds a Canada 150 Research Chair in Mathematics for Evolution, Infection and Public Health. In her group, they develop mathematical tools connecting sequence data to the ecology and evolution of infections. Dr. Colijn also has a long-standing interest in the dynamics of diverse interacting pathogens. For example, how does the interplay between co-infection, competition and selection drive the development of antimicrobial resistance? To answer these questions, her group is building new approaches to analyzing and comparing phylogenetic trees derived from sequence data, studying tree space and branching processes, and developing ecological and epidemiological models with diversity in mind.