COVID-19: What's Mathematics Got To Do With It? with Dr. Jane Heffernan '96

Established by Trent University Professor Emeritus David Poole, former chair of Trent’s Mathematics Department and a former Associate Dean of Arts and Science, this annual lecture series will feature talks about mathematics and/or mathematics education.

COVID-19: What's Mathematics Got to Do with It?
COVID-19 has brought mathematical modelling into public forums, and into the everyday conversation for some. In this talk, the speaker will provide a review of the mathematics behind COVID-19 models that have been used to inform local, provincial, and federal government agencies and decision-makers. The utility of models in tracking and estimating important epidemiological outcomes such as the number of infections, hospitalizations, or deaths, the distribution of immunity in a population, and the current ‘R number’ will be discussed.

About the Speaker
Hailed as one of Canada's leading applied mathematicians, and as a widely respected researcher on the spread and persistence of infectious diseases, Dr. Jane Heffernan has been a professor at York University's Faculty of Science since 2007, where she is also a co-director of the Centre for Disease Modelling and a Tier II Research Chair.

Jane's work has addressed public health and disease issues, her focus of late dedicated almost exclusively to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her research has been published in several prestigious journals and her papers have been extensively cited.

Jane is involved in international immunization and public health networks, and she has served as a board director with both the International Society for Mathematical Biology and Canadian Applied and Industrial Mathematics Society. She is currently President-Elect for the Society for Mathematical Biology, where she was also recently appointed as a Fellow.

As a female professor, Jane is proactive in promoting equity, diversity and inclusion, encouraging female students to pursue careers and fulfill their personal goals. Many of her students have successfully established careers in academia and industry.