Speaker: Dr Jacques Belair (Universite de Montreal)
Abstract: Since the origin of cinema, infectious disease outbreak films have been numerous and have displayed a wide range of pathologies, including, in addition to real or “any-resemblance-to-actual-is-pure-coincidence” viruses, vampires, zombies and aliens. A non-comprehensive overview of recent and historical instances will be presented, and a mathematical representation of the last-minute-heroic-world-saving intervention will be discussed.
Bio: Jacques Bélair is Full Professor in the department of mathematics and statistics at Université de Montréal. His PhD is in applied mathematics from Cornell University and he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Physiology at McGill University. He has served as associate director of the Centre de recherches mathématiques (CRM), vice-dean of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, President of the Canadian Applied and Industrial Mathematics Society (CAIMS) (of which he is currently Secretary), and co-chaired the Organizing Committee of the Annual Meeting of the Society for Mathematical Biology (SMB) in 2019. His research concerns mathematical modeling of dynamic regulatory processes in biology: in the past, cardiac arrhythmias and motor control, presently, blood cell production (hematopoiesis) and the propagation of infectious diseases in general, and currently COVID-19 in particular.