Postdoctoral Fellowship: MPS-Ascend: Advancing Mosquito-borne Disease Models with Distributed Delay Equations

Dr. Kyle Dahlin is awarded a National Science Foundation Mathematical and Physical Sciences Ascending Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (NSF MPS-Ascend) to conduct a program of research, education, and activities related to broadening participation by groups underrepresented in STEM. This fellowship supports the research project entitled "Advancing Mosquito-borne Disease Models with Distributed Delay Equations". The project activities will be conducted at the host institution, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, under the mentorship of Dr. Lauren Childs. Mosquito-borne diseases are one of the greatest challenges faced by humanity, but understanding their drivers is a challenge as transmission involves interactions between three organisms: vector, host and parasite. This project entails developing novel models of mosquito-borne disease transmission to incorporate key biological and ecological processes via three objectives: (i) incorporate realistic mosquito feeding behaviors into mathematical models; (ii) integrate behavioral dynamics into mosquito-host contact models; and (iii) combine these mosquito behaviors into disease transmission models. This work will be conducted in parallel with several broadening participation activities aimed at increasing the participation of Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders in STEM, including the development of a calculus curriculum that incorporates topics from traditional Pacific Islander practices of oceanic wayfinding. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.