Prof Julia Gog and the BBC Pandemic project

An influenza pandemic is still one of the greatest threats to humanity. During the pandemic in 2009 over 60 million people caught the H1N1 influenza virus in the United States: over 274,000 of these required hospital and, sadly, over 12,000 people died. A groundbreaking project, the BBC Pandemic, allows every person in the UK to contribute to research to combat future pandemics.

We spoke to Julia Gog, Professor of Mathematical Biology in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, about how she and her team at DAMTP are working with the BBC on this innovative project, and about combining outreach, citizen science and new mathematical research.