COVID-19 Reports

BIOGRAPHY

Guillaume Chabot-Couture is Deputy Director, Research Programs at the Institute for Disease Modeling. He has a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Stanford University, where he focused on experimental and theoretical cuprate superconductor research. Guillaume has received two national post-graduate scholarships from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. In his spare time, Guillaume has served as a lecturer and leader for the Canadian Physics Olympiad. Guillaume’s research interests include vaccination campaign data analysis and modeling, disease risk estimation, financial projections, health economics, and weather modeling

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Edward Wenger directs the IDM global health research program, which includes analyses related to malaria, HIV, TB, pneumonia, enteric diseases, and emergent pathogens. Before joining the disease-modeling program in 2011, Dr. Wenger managed the development, validation, and release of reconstruction and simulation algorithms for the heavy-ion project of the CMS experiment at CERN. He supervised the processing and distribution of a petabyte of data from the first heavy-ion collision run, and directed the planning and execution of the first silicon-based analyses. Dr. Wenger graduated from Dartmouth College and received his Ph.D. in Physics from MIT.

BIOGRAPHY

Rob Baker is the Deputy Director, Software Test & IT Operations within IDM and brings over twenty years of experience in software development and validation to the group. He and his team are responsible for the test, validation, and quality control of all software components and systems developed by IDM, as well as the design, development, support, and maintenance of a wide variety of related technologies used by the IDM organization. Additionally, Rob is also working toward a degree in Information Systems to further his already impressive knowledge and experience. Prior to joining IDM, Rob worked in the wireless telecommunications industry, and has held various roles in many areas, including test project management, systems architecture, systems administration, database design, customer management, vendor management, voice-based software development, and data platform software development.

BIOGRAPHY

Daniel J. Klein is Sr. Research Manager of Computational Science Research, a cross-cutting team within IDM which supports modeling and analytics within IDM and on-behalf of our external partners.  Since joining IDM in 2010, he has co-lead development of the EMOD-HIV model, published algorithms for stochastic model optimization and calibration, and presented modeling results to international stakeholders.  Dr. Klein studied engineering at the Univ. of Wisconsin before earning a Ph.D. in Aeronautics & Astronautics with specialization in control theory from the Univ. of Washington.  During 2018, he led various data science and strategy initiatives as a Senior Program Officer in the Global Development Strategy, Data, and Analytics team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  Prior to joining IDM, Dr. Klein was enjoying the sunshine of Santa Barbara, CA as a postdoctoral scholar with the Center for Control and Dynamical Systems at UCSB.

BIOGRAPHY

Caitlin Bever has a Ph.D. in Biological Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), along with a Bachelor’s degree (B.Sc.) with Combined Honors in Physics and Astronomy from the University of British Columbia (UBC). Caitlin received a Medtronic Fellowship for her post-graduate work at MIT and the Rudy Haering Medal for outstanding graduating physics student from UBC. Her academic research focused on understanding how to select useful predictions from uncertain mathematical models of biology. Prior to joining IDM, Caitlin worked on a team at Entelos that built a novel model of atherosclerosis in mouse, paired with an analogous model of cardiovascular disease in human, which improved the design of pre-clinical experiments and identified key indicators for translating results from mouse to human. Caitlin was on assignment in Switzerland for a year and a half as a consultant for Entelos, after which she worked with the malaria modeling group at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute. In her role there, she developed new methods for spatial modeling of entomological inoculation rates and co-wrote a WHO report on how country-specific considerations contribute to the impact of malaria vaccines. As a member of IDM’s research team, Caitlin leads the projects on malaria vaccines and human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) with a focus on disease eradication.  

BIOGRAPHY

Chris is a member of the System Administration and Application Support team, with over a decade of experience supporting diverse and large-scale computing environments and platforms.

BIOGRAPHY

Christian Wiswell manages the models test team at IDM. This team's mission is to provide software quality assurance to the models consumed by the IDM research team. Christian has Bachelor of Arts degrees in both History and Philosophy from the University of Kansas (Lawrence, KS). Christian has almost twenty years of experience in software quality, working on RESTful web services, desktop applications and new user interfaces at Microsoft, Google, and a couple of internet startups. While at Microsoft, he was brought onto the PixelSense (formerly Surface) project because of his background in software test and board gaming, and his work there generated two patent awards.

BIOGRAPHY

Christopher Lorton has a Master of Science in Computer Science from Washington University, St. Louis, where he also obtained a Bachelor of Science in Physics. His master’s thesis focused on the parallel computation of neural networks (NN) for the recognition of handwritten characters. Christopher’s past work includes machine vision systems, digital media processing, cross-platform managed code runtime development, and the accelerated rendering of graphical user interfaces (GUI).  Christopher’s current responsibilities as a development lead include simulation engine software development for an upcoming compartmental modeling framework, as well as the rapid prototyping of disease transmission models for the efficient simulation of those models.  

BIOGRAPHY

Hil Lyons has a Ph.D. in Statistics, as well as a Master of Science degree in Statistics, and a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics, from the University of Washington, Seattle. Hil’s research has included the stochastic modeling of the growth and death processes in tree stand data, as well as spatial point processes and applications of applied statistics. He has also worked extensively as a statistical consultant for a variety of academic research groups and departments, including a position as Assistant Director of the Department of Statistics consulting center at the University of Washington. As a result, he has expertise with a wide variety of modeling and applied statistics topics and methods.  Within IDM, Hil’s work is focused on polio eradication efforts, where he provides statistical modeling, analysis, and interpretation of diverse data for robust and timely decision support.

BIOGRAPHY

Affiliate Assistant Professor, Applied Mathematics, University of Washington Affiliate Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering, University of Washington Joshua Proctor is currently a research manager and senior research scientist at IDM leading the Data, Dynamics and Analytics (DDA) team. DDA is focused on applying modern data science, machine-learning, and statistical techniques to a wide-range of data sources, i.e., surveillance of infectious diseases, household surveys, genome sequencing of viruses or parasites, and demography.  We aim to leverage the growing success of these modern analytic and numerical methods to advise on near-term public policy questions facing the global health community. In conjunction, we also identify the short-comings of current methodological approaches and develop novel, principled algorithms to face the challenges of surveillance data. Joshua Proctor earned a Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton.  Before graduate school, Joshua earned a Bachelor of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering, and a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, both from the University of Washington, Seattle. His doctoral research focused on investigating the effects of neural feedback on rapidly running insects (specifically, cockroaches).  The research required the development of complex mathematical models describing legged locomotion, the application of dimensionality reduction techniques, and the characterization of these nonlinear dynamical systems through bifurcation analyses [1,2].  The research led to several important discoveries about the role of neural feedback during running, while also inspiring better robotic designs for maneuverability, stability, and control. Joshua joined IDM in 2011 after his Ph.D. and contributed to the development of the compartmental modeling simulations software.  This software package is soon to be released to the global health community.  Joshua then joined the nascent Applied Mathematics group at IDM where he developed algorithms and novel mathematical methods for the study of infectious disease data.  He became interested in equation-free modeling and data-driven analyses, inspired by the mathematical developments around fluid dynamics at Princeton University.  Generally, equation-free modeling does not require a set of pre-determined, derived from first-principles equations.  Instead, the time-series data is utilized to discover dynamic models and/or dynamic characteristics.  This led to a number of important methodological innovations [3,4,5,6], including a book describing the mathematical method Dynamic Mode Decomposition [7]. These methodologies are poised to have a substantial impact on infectious disease modeling. During his previous position in the Applied Mathematics group, Joshua also focused on leveraging current data science and machine-learning methodologies for epidemiological and demographic applications.  For example, he is interested in characterizing genomes of viruses or parasites and their metadata (GPS location, age, gender, sex, etc.) to better understand the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases [8,9]. Understanding these modern genomic data sets can help inform disease surveillance efforts for elimination and eradication efforts.  Joshua is also interested in questions around demography, specifically in the family planning group and estimating child mortality.

BIOGRAPHY

Kevin McCarthy is the Research Manager for the measles research team at the Institute for Disease Modeling. Kevin has a Ph.D. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as well as a Bachelor degree in both Physics and Electrical Engineering from the University of California, San Diego. His research focus is on optimizing burden control activities and helping to clarify critical vaccination policy decisions relevant to achieving and maintaining measles eradication. Kevin joined the Institute in 2013, and before leading the measles effort, he worked on both malaria and polio. As a member of the polio team, Kevin developed methods to calibrate a spatio-temporal polio model investigating the dynamics of eradication in northern Nigeria, the potential risk of accidental or intentional oral polio vaccine use after synchronized cessation, and the consequences of localized inaccessibility for surveillance and vaccination activities. In malaria, he worked on calibration of the IDM intra-host malaria model and malaria vaccine efficacy studies. These calibrated models can be used to evaluate the expected efficacy of potential intervention campaigns and provide decision support to global health policymakers. Prior to IDM, Kevin’s research focused on astrophysics and particle physics, and his doctoral research was performed as a member of the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search collaboration.

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Mike Famulare is a Principal Research Scientist and Co-chair of Epidemiology at the Institute for Disease Modeling (IDM), an institute within Global Health at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Dr. Famulare's core discipline is using mathematical modeling to study infectious disease transmission and improve the utility of disease surveillance data. Since joining IDM in 2012, he has worked closely with partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative to assess the impacts of polio vaccination policies on poliovirus transmission in different settings. He is also a founding member of the Seattle Flu Study, an innovative collaboration in at-home, multi-pathogen, self-testing that identified the first case of community transmission of COVID-19 in the United States.  Most recently, he has been co-leading IDM's COVID-19 response, with a focus on analytics and modeling to inform COVID-19 control strategy in collaboration with the Washington State Department of Health and Governor's office.

BIOGRAPHY

Stewart Chang has a Ph.D. in Bioinformatics from the University of Michigan, where he researched the mathematical modeling of host response to tuberculosis (TB) bacterium. He also has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biochemistry, as well as Latin, from Rice University. Stewart has over ten years of experience with a variety of computational modeling and analysis techniques, including post-doctoral work at the University of British Columbia (UBC) as well as at the University of Washington, Seattle (UW), where he investigated the mathematical modeling of HIV infection at UBC, and did genomic analysis of influenza-infected and HIV-infected cells at the UW. Stewart also has a strong community focus. Before turning to research, he joined Teach for America and taught math in rural south Louisiana, where he worked with under-resourced communities.  As a member of IDM’s research team, Stewart is currently developing and parameterizing the IDM model of HIV infection, and is working on the IDM model of TB infection.

BIOGRAPHY

Daniel Bridenbecker has a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, and majored in both Math and Physics.  Additionally, Daniel completed Master of Science course work in Mathematics at Georgia State University. Prior to working at IDM, Daniel was the Software Engineering Manager at Cloud Cap Technology that developed fully autonomous autopilots and pan/tilt/zoom camera systems for small unmanned air vehicles.  Daniel came to Cloud Cap after his partner and he sold their custom software development company, Solution Engineering, Inc., to the Goodrich Corporation.  At Solution Engineering, Daniel worked on numerous projects ranging from precision measurement to decision support software.  Daniel also brings over 10 years of experience developing air-to-air combat simulations for Lockheed Martin.  This experience includes pilot decision logic, integrated avionics system, and numerous data analysis tools. As a member of the IDM software team, Daniel’s primary focus is on developing EMOD software.  

BIOGRAPHY

DC Sutliffe has a Bachelor of Art (B.A.) in Graphic Design with an emphasis in Computer Science from the University of the Pacific, as well as completing Master of Science coursework in Computer Information Systems. DC has more than 10 years of System Engineering experience including progressive responsibility and expertise in Quality Assurance Analysis, Configuration Management, and AT&T Core Network Architecture, Test Automation as well as Project Management within the Software Testing Field.  Prior to joining IDM, she worked for the Turkish Government on the Istanbul Seismic Mitigation and Emergency Preparedness(ISMEP) in combination with Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East Corporation (NTT East) supporting the implementation of EDX SignalPro that aided in the testing of calculations and statistical analysis of base Radio Frequency (RF) simulations. DC has worked for larger corporations, freelanced for small start-ups, as well as volunteered for humanitarian, political and environmental organizations. As a member of the IDM software team, DC’s current work focuses on supporting and testing the IDM Large Data Project.  

BIOGRAPHY

Jeff Steinkraus has a Master of Science degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan, as well as dual Bachelor of Science degrees in Computer Science and Honors Mathematics from the University of Michigan. Jeff’s master’s research focused on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). As a member of the IDM software team, Jeff has worked in a variety of areas, including input tools, disease model features and performance, and currently works on developing and enhancing an open, flexible infrastructure to support disease modeling.

BIOGRAPHY

Ned McHugh has a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in Computer Science from Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA., and over 25 years of experience in software development. Prior to working at IDM, Ned worked at Microsoft on Windows Azure, Windows Essential Business Server, and MSDN. He was on the software development team at Chase Bank that rewrote the consumer credit card web site infrastructure for scalability and reliability for millions of users.  Ned also worked at Reuters and launched multiple stock brokerage web sites for buying and selling stocks online. As a member of the IDM software team, Ned is developing and enhancing the computing infrastructure for disease modeling.  

BIOGRAPHY

In the olden days, Peter Sylwester went from studying Photography at the Rhode Island School of Design, straight-away to manipulating digital imagery on computers that were as big as a house. Then, as the computers got smaller and the images got bigger, Peter retouched and assembled digital imagery for big and fancy advertising agencies in Boston and San Francisco. As the internet came along, Peter surfed that wave as an animator of elaborate interfaces and developer of online games. In the subsequent years of the so-called Web 2.0, Peter joined Eddie Bauer to help engineer an integration of fashion and ecommerce, and then years later, at the advent of the smartphone revolution, worked as a technologist and design thinker for T-Mobile in their advanced innovations laboratory, the Creation Center. All the while, Peter has taught certification courses in multimedia development, design, and introductory programming at Portland State University and Bellevue Community College. At IDM, Peter designs and engineers interfaces intended to facilitate human interaction with complex workflows on high-performance computing technologies.

BIOGRAPHY

Tony Ting has a Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) with Honors in Computer Science from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His final year project focused on handwriting recognition in form documents. Tony started his career in software at HSBC Bank where he developed risk management software for the electronic cash project MONDEX, and developed misc front-end components of the HSBC internet banking site. He then worked for Microsoft on SQL Server developing internal tools for both programmability features and engineering support systems, as well as the development of a services verification framework in SQL Azure. Prior to working at IDM, Tony helped build a large scale peer-to-peer cloud storage network for a startup company. As a member of the IDM software team, Tony is currently leading the development of various verification tools and processes for the computing infrastructure for disease modeling. He also create tools to scientifically validate the demographics, migration and climate data used by the EMOD software.

BIOGRAPHY

Matt has over 15 years of technical experience with startup companies throughout the Puget Sound area, as well as Microsoft where he was both a System Analyst for the Bing software development and quality assurance labs and servers, and an IT Operations Engineer supporting Active Directory (ADFS). Additionally, Matt has an AA from Skagit Valley College and course work from Western Washington University where he focused on a degree in Education before changing to technology.  As a member of the software team, Matt is the Systems Administrator and deploys, administers, and updates IDM’s large-scale computing systems, including the high-performance computing cluster, and their related infrastructure services.

BIOGRAPHY

John Sheppard is a member of the IDM software development team and brings over 16 years of experience in software development and engineering excellence. He has worked in biodiversity informatics, bioinformatics, and data analytics, as well as search technology and large scale distributed systems. John is also the co-author of multiple patents related to search and data analytics technologies. With a long history in the field as well as wide interests that span most of computer science, he has been involved in various open source projects, including projects for rules engines, peer mesh networks, and language runtimes.  Within IDM, John leads the development efforts focused on creating the operational infrastructure for IDM’s modeling solvers.

BIOGRAPHY

Jillian Gauld has a Master of Science in Population and Public Health from the University of British Columbia, along with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Biology from Queen’s University. She received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research for her master’s thesis, which focused on the development of contact networks in the hospital setting, and modeling the transmission of respiratory pathogens between healthcare workers. Prior to joining IDM, Jillian was an environmental health scientist at the BC Centre for Disease Control in Vancouver, Canada. As a member of the IDM research team, Jillian is working on transmission network development and epidemiology, to inform vaccination policies and control strategies for enteric and respiratory diseases. 

BIOGRAPHY

Dejan Lukacevic has a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the School of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade, Serbia. He is an experienced Software Engineer with a strong background in relational databases, SQL, software tools and automation. Dejan is passionate about data, coding and quality. Prior to joining IDM, Dejan worked at Microsoft for 8 years, most recently on testing Windows Error Reporting (WER), large-scale processing harnesses, and testing relational databases. Prior to Microsoft he worked in the NGO sector, leading the development of microfinance and project monitoring systems for community development projects. As a member of the IDM software team, Dejan is focusing on supporting research by developing scalable software tools, analyzing spatial, climate and demographics data, and managing PostgreSQL databases and Azure data processing pipelines.

BIOGRAPHY

André Lin has a PhD in Medical Sciences from the Radboud University Medical Centre, Netherlands, along with a Master’s degree and a PhD in Applied Biology from the University of Ouagadougou. He was also awarded a graduate scholarship in Biology Engineering from the University of Sciences and Technology in Algiers where his interest lay in the biological and anti-bacterial properties of a cobalt-60’s sterile irradiated amniotic membrane tissue. As a doctoral candidate, André Lin used sensitive molecular tools and first quantified the full extent of the human reservoir for gametocytes. Prior to joining IDM, André Lin was Principal Investigator of epidemiological and clinical studies at CNRFP, Ouagadougou. His work contributed novel and highly relevant findings about malaria low-density infections and immunity to accurately understand the composition and dynamics of the infectious reservoir to facilitate current and future malaria control and elimination efforts. He also acted as temporary advisor for WHO. As part of the research team at IDM, André works to identify and organize input data in order to refine and apply models to conduct sensitivity analyses as well as explore trade-offs among multiple interventions. His concentration is optimizing disease eradication plans for time, cost, and robustness and developing novel diagnostic techniques in support of elimination and eradication of malaria.

BIOGRAPHY

Bryan Ressler is a Senior Software Developer at IDM. He holds a BS of Information & Computer Science from UC Irvine. For the last 27 years, he has worked in application software development, embedded systems, user interface design, mobile applications and research incubations. A few of the projects he has worked on include system software at Apple, graphics applications at Adobe Systems, startup companies in the MPEG, e-learning, medical and content distribution fields, photo manipulation applications at Microsoft (including PhotoSynth and MS Research’s ICE photo-stitching application), and research incubation projects at eBay Research Labs. Bryan is also an electronic artist, musician, and member of the Maker movement. At IDM, he is concentrating on creating and fine-tuning the upcoming COMPS user interface.

BIOGRAPHY

Steve Kroiss has a Ph.D. in Biology from Washington University in St. Louis and a B.S. in Biology from the University of Wisconsin Madison. For his postdoctoral work at the University of Washington in Seattle, he studied the effects of climate change on the geographic range boundaries and population dynamics of forests on Mt. Rainier. For his dissertation, he studied the effectiveness of different land management strategies for restoring rare plant populations in the Ozark Mountains and on the California coastline. He also worked at the Chicago Botanic Garden and consulted for Point Reyes National Seashore, helping to monitor and manage rare plant species. As an Education Research Fellow at the Center for Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning, he helped develop evidence-based teaching methods for improving students’ understanding of primary research articles. As a Teaching Associate at UW Seattle, he helped formulate several courses in ecology and statistical modeling. Additionally, he led a volunteer teaching team in the Young Scientist Program, a science outreach program for public school students. Steve has joined the Polio team as a research scientist to support polio eradication efforts by creating and improving statistical risk models, mapping disease spread, and analyzing vaccination campaign data.

BIOGRAPHY

Adam Akullian is a Sr. Research Scientist at IDM and an Affiliate Associate Professor in the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington. Adam has a Ph.D. in Epidemiology from the University of Washington and an Sc.B. in Environmental Science from Brown University. He is a recipient of a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship. As a doctoral candidate, Adam studied the spatial epidemiology of emerging enteric diseases and the geography of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. As a member of the IDM’s research team, Adam is dedicated to understanding what it will take to end the HIV epidemic, considering heterogeneous risk of acquisition and transmission across populations, and uses mathematical modeling and spatial epidemiology in his work.

BIOGRAPHY

Svetlana Titova holds a Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Certificate of C# Programming from the UC, San Diego Extension. For five years, she tested firmware and software for sonar technology with Teledyne RD Instruments, whose clients included USGS and DARPA. She also tested the Forza Motorsport video game at Turn 10 Studios for three years. Svetlana brings her skills back to the field of science as she joins IDM to test UI components that are currently under development.

BIOGRAPHY

Dennis Chao holds a PhD from the University of New Mexico and a BSE from Princeton University. Prior to IDM, Dennis was a Staff Scientist in the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He developed models of infectious disease transmission for influenza, cholera, and dengue in order to better understand the epidemiology of these pathogens and to predict the effectiveness of potential intervention strategies. His prior projects included research on threats from bioterrorism and emerging infectious diseases as well as modeling the effects of mass cholera vaccinations in Haiti and Africa. Dennis joins IDM’s Epidemiology team as a research scientist to continue his work with enteric diseases and modeling.

BIOGRAPHY

Cory is a member of the System Administration and Application Support team, with over 20 years of experience designing and supporting IT infrastructure systems for startup and global companies, including High-Performance Compute Clusters that have been on the Top500 list. His focus at IDM is to provide stable, efficient systems operating in our world class data center and in the cloud. Cory has a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from North Dakota State University.

BIOGRAPHY

Zhaowei has a PhD in Mathematics and MS in Computer Science from the University of Florida. He has over 18 years of experience working as a computer software developer. Zhaowei has experience with Web Search Tools, ASPX applications, Windows applications, and Python applications. As part of IDM’s team Zhaowei will be working on IDM’s DTK-Tools.

BIOGRAPHY

Ye has a Master of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech, and a Bachelor of Engineering (with honors) in Mechanical and Electronic Engineering from Zhejiang University, China. Ye has four years of experience working as a Senior Software Engineer in test at MicroStrategy where her primary focus was MicroStrategy Intelligent server and web server testing. Ye also has experience with mobile and web UI testing. Ye’s testing experience includes software functional testing, stability test, and performance testing/tuning. As a member of IDM’s team her primary focus will be the COMPS RESTful service.

BIOGRAPHY

Jen Schripsema has an MS in User Centered Design and Engineering from the University of Washington and BA in Biology from the Colorado College. She has experience working as the solo writer at a fast-paced startup and implementing documentation systems that allow for greater collaboration with researchers and engineers. Jen has written and edited content for Windows Embedded about how to build operating systems for embedded devices and led projects to design documentation landing pages, informational posters, and other illustrations. Jen has written science news articles for a variety of publications, including a project on the importance of interdisciplinary research teams. Additionally, she wrote news articles for patients with chronic health conditions. As a senior technical writer for IDM, Jen contributes to software documentation and teaching tools.

BIOGRAPHY

Mandy Izzo is a Senior Science Writer for the Institute for Disease Modeling, where she develops  scientific content for the global health community. She earned a BA in Integrative Biology from the University of California, Berkeley; an MS in Biology from California State University, Northridge; and a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Michigan.  Her training was furthered during post-doctoral positions at the University of California, Davis, first in the Department of Entomology and Nematology, and then in the Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology. She has over 11 years of field and lab experience in the biological sciences that include the design, oversight, execution, and analysis of projects.  Trained as an Evolutionary Ecologist with specialization in the Behavioral Ecology of insects, Mandy’s work on insects has spanned topics such as the evolution of cricket song in the presence of an acoustically-orienting parasitic fly; the evolution of signals mediating inter- and intra-sexual selection in paper wasps; how multi-modal signals interact to mediate social interactions among dominance hierarchies in social insects; and how social interactions maintain honesty in communication. In addition to her work on insects, she has forayed into other taxa as well, examining the functionality of zebra stripes and studying the social, hormonal, and genetic basis of aggressive behavior of female tree swallows. Mandy is passionate about science communication, and aims to help make science more accessible between fields as well as to the general public.  Her enjoyment of engaging others in science is manifest in her numerous publications and award-winning presentations. She holds a long-standing interest in public health and epidemiology, and is extremely excited for the opportunity to participate in the scientific process with a group that strives towards increasing transparency in science.  

BIOGRAPHY

Amelia Bertozzi-Villa earned her MPH from the University of Washington and Bachelor’s degree in Biology with honors and a minor in math from New York University. Prior to coming to IDM, Amelia worked as a Post-Bachelor Fellow at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, where she focused primarily on small-area estimation of mortality at the county level in the US. Amelia's research focuses on malaria transmission in Southeast Asia and the integration of empirical and dynamical disease modeling frameworks. Her other affiliations are with the University of Washington's iSchool and Oxford University's Malaria Atlas Project.

BIOGRAPHY

Kurt Frey has a doctorate in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as well as a Master of Science in Chemical Engineering Practice from MIT, and a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the Ohio State University. Kurt has worked for a variety of research groups, and was most recently at Argonne National Laboratory, supporting efforts on environmental processes for nuclear waste, both in recycling and disposal.

BIOGRAPHY

Prashanth Selvaraj has a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Master's degree in Fluid Mechanics from Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, France. During his Ph.D., he studied the dynamics of epileptic seizures that form in the human cortex using a phsyiologically relevant mathematical model of cortical dynamics. Additionally, he proposed the use of optogenetics, which involves light sensitive ion channels expressed by certain cell types in the cortex, to inhibit the spread of seizures before they are fully formed using closed loop control methods. After his Ph.D., Prashanth worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, as part of the DARPA SUBNETS initiative. He investigated the underlying meso-scale networks in the brain that contribute to neuropsychiatric disorders like PTSD and depression, and worked on a closed loop method of electrical stimulation to disrupt the function of these networks alleviating symptoms of these disorders. As part of the research team at IDM, Prashanth works on calibrating mathematical models of disease spread and control to the dynamics of malaria in different regions around the world.

BIOGRAPHY

 David Kong has a bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Simon Fraser University in Canada. He has worked at HSBC in the 90's to develop one of the bank's first PC Banking software. He has done contract work at Microsoft working on products such as Microsoft Office Accounting, Windows Media Center and Connected System Framework. At Boeing, he worked at the DMS team for centralizing, categorizing and managing documents used in Boeing. Being joining IDM, he worked at a startup called Visible Technologies which help companies to collect, monitor analyze social media data using Data Big technologies. Within IDM, he works in the COMPS team as a software engineer focusing on UI development.

BIOGRAPHY

Having worked in the Administrative and Marketing fields for over 15 years, Donna Adams is truly passionate about people and enjoy helping others. With a Bachelor’s Degree in English from Seattle University and administrative experience from small tech start-ups to large organizations like Nintendo of America, she brings a can-do attitude that creates a workplace culture with a sense of collaboration and community. She actively volunteers her marketing and design skills to a local dance studio and opens up her home in Sammamish as a host family to foreign exchange students.

BIOGRAPHY

Chris Jones earned a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from the University of Oregon before returning to study Chemistry and Computer Science. He was lured away by the software industry and has worked for over 10 years as a back-end and build/internal tools developer. Chris worked for several years in Microsoft's Developer Division on a high-level build and tools team tasked with maintaining build quality and improving the code validation and integration processes used across the org. containing over two thousand devs, while there he helped ship Visual Studio 2005 and 2008. He also spent time at Turn 10 Studios working on build tools and infrastructure during the production cycle for Forza 6. Currently he works to maintain and improve the continuous integration system, helping to ensure the modelling software is always in a near-shippable state and that QA/researchers have builds available for testing and use.

BIOGRAPHY

Clinton Collins has a Bachelor of Computer Science from Bluefield State College. Clinton has ten years of experience working in Software Development working on a wide range of software projects including telecom billing platform, cloud billing services, and a medicaid reconciliation suite. At IDM Clinton will be working on Large Data software services including climate and demographics data. Outside of work, he enjoys hiking, live music, tinkering around with hardware and software, and travel.

BIOGRAPHY

Thomas holds a Master’s (Dipl.-Ing.) degree in Information and Communication Engineering from the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany. Thomas has about 10 years of experience in the field of R&D and software development. Before he started at the IDM he was a researcher at the University of Washington where he worked on vision based navigation for autonomous drones. Prior to coming to the US, he worked as a Software Engineer at Nikon Metrology in Leuven, Belgium, where he was in a team that made software for coordinate measurement machines. At Vanderlande in the Netherlands he started as embedded software engineer for high-availability and real-time systems, then changed to the development of graphical user interfaces which he later headed as lead engineer. His career started as software engineer for embedded systems at ebmpast in Landshut, Germany, with the development of an air mass flow controlled blower for gas fired boilers. Thomas joined the EMOD team a year ago and is very excited to work at IDM.

BIOGRAPHY

Josh Suresh has a PhD in astrophysics from Harvard University, as well as dual BS degrees in mathematics and physics from MIT.  His doctoral work involved using large-scale hydrodynamic simulations to study the formation and evolution of galaxies.  Specifically, his thesis focused on how to leverage observations of the circumgalactic medium to inform and constrain theoretical models of key galaxy physics, e.g. feedback from supernovae and supermassive black holes.  As part of the malaria team at IDM, Josh is focused on using epidemiological modeling to directly inform and support malaria elimination efforts in sub-Saharan Africa.

BIOGRAPHY

Clark Kirkman IV has a PhD in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Washington where he studied high latitude climate and sea ice, ocean, and atmosphere interactions of the Southern Ocean. He previously obtained a MS in Computer Sciences at the University of Wisconsin – Madison and BA in Computer Science and Mathematics from Lewis & Clark College. Prior to joining IDM, Clark worked as a Software Engineer for Vaisala, where he supported and developed software and processes for assessing wind and solar energy sources. He focused on delivering flexible-yet-automated processes to the internal assessment production team to help them stay focused on the creative parts of their jobs and improve their productivity. He now applies his do-what-needs-to-be-done approach and passion for helping team members be more productive to IDM, where he directly supports researchers with their software needs, including the DTK tools.

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Marita R. Zimmermann has a PhD in health economics and outcomes research from the University of Washington. She also holds a Master’s in Public Health from Brown University and a Bachelor of Science in chemical and biomedical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. For her doctoral dissertation, she evaluated the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of an active surveillance pharmacovigilance program for HIV drugs in Namibia. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship with Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, in which she designed and implemented novel cost-effectiveness models for new and existing drugs within selected disease areas, such as multiple sclerosis, blindness, and atopic dermatitis. These models were designed to inform payer or other stakeholder decision making and to influence U.S. policy. Marita has completed many other cost-effectiveness, budget impact, and program evaluation models in both U.S. and global health settings in varying disease areas. Marita’s research uses econometric, epidemiologic, and modeling methods to evaluate and increase value in health. She has produced many peer-reviewed publications in journals such as Drug Safety, Journal of AIDS, Journal of the American Pharmacy Association, and American Journal of Public Health. As an economist in IDM's analysis and model usage center, Marita models the economic effects of infectious disease and vaccination, and assesses value of interventions. Her work aims to inform decision makers how to get the most bang for their healthcare buck.

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Niket Thakkar received his PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Washington in March 2017. As a graduate student, he worked on a variety of nanoscale optics problems, using mathematical modeling and statistics in collaboration with experimentalists to guide the design of novel measurement techniques and nanotechnologies. His work has been published in journals such as Nature Photonics and ACS Nano, and he has received a number of awards including the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, the Boeing Research Award, and the 2017 UW Graduate Medal. At IDM, Niket works with the analysis and model usage group, creating statistical and machine learning models in support of measles erradication efforts. Outside of research, Niket plays soccer, reads, bikes, and searches for good Mexican food.

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Brittany Hagedorn is a financial analyst for the Institute for Disease Modeling. She collaborates with multiple disease teams to estimate the cost of proposed interventions and to assess their value in comparison to alternative strategies for disease control. Brittany is interested in questions around the value of information in helping policy makers design more cost-effective strategies, as well as the trade-offs between alternative intervention strategies under budgetary constraints. Prior to joining IDM, Brittany worked with North American healthcare delivery systems to optimize their workflows to improve safety and clinical outcomes while simultaneously reducing cost. She has also advised healthcare technology companies on product design and development. Brittany is an ASQ-certified Six Sigma Black Belt and holds a B.S. in Systems Engineering and Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from Washington University in St. Louis.

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Albert Lee is a research scientist on the Data, Dynamics and Analytics Team, and he has a PhD in Physics from Harvard University. For his graduate work, he studied the physical properties of interstellar dust by mapping the three-dimensional variation in its temperature and by using large catalogs of stars to infer its color and composition. He has been a recipient of the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship as well as the Insight Data Fellowship. At IDM he is developing new genetic models and tools to better understand the transmission properties of diseases. Outside the office you'll likely find him scribbling away in a sketchpad or hunting for LPs.

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Ross Carter has a Master of Science in Telecommunications from University of Colorado (Boulder) through the college of engineering and applied science. He also has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish and minor in Portuguese from BYU. He has over twenty years of experience working at high tech companies, such as Microsoft and Amazon Web Services (AWS). He’s held many different roles: network analyst, course developer, technical program manager, programmer writer, and technical writer. He’s always enjoyed working on cutting edge technologies. Ross is excited to be working at IDM on the documentation team.

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Wesley earned his PHD at Harvard University under Dr. Dyann Wirth, Dr. Daniel L Hartl, and Daniel E. Neafsey where he used computational biology and bioinformatic techniques to study malaria genomics. He is interested in studying infectious disease evolution with models combining traditional population genetics and epidemiology. At IDM, he works with Mike Famulare to create dynamic models aimed at exploring multiscale transmission and viral evolution.

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Gregory is a Research Scientist in the Epidemiology Group at the Institute for Disease Modeling (IDM). Currently he is working on integrating genetic data into disease transmission modeling. Before coming to IDM he was a postdoc at the Yale School of Medicine where he predicted cancer risk from personal health data. He earned his Ph.D., in Physics, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he worked on predicting optimal vaccine candidates based on fitness information derived from genetic data.

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Rafael C. Nunez is a Research Scientist on the epidemiology team at IDM.  He brings more than 10 years of experience in data fusion, signal processing, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and high-performance computing.  He received his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Miami, his M.Sc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Delaware, and his B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (Medellin, Colombia).  His current research is focused on the development and application of machine learning algorithms for disease transmission models, with emphasis on prediction and model calibration.

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Navideh Noori was a postdoctoral research associate at the Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, for three years where she worked on developing mathematical and computational models of disease transmission, and application of statistical inference method and transmission models to infectious disease incidence data. Specifically she worked on two projects: 1) understanding the determinants of polio transmission and its large-scale epidemiology using a machine learning algorithm, 2) quantifying the consequences of measles-induced immune suppression for whooping cough epidemiology. She holds a PhD in Forest Hydrology from Auburn University, and a Master of Science in Civil Eng-Water Resource Eng from University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran. During her PhD, she focused on understanding the dynamics interplay between environmental variations and public health concern, namely flooding and infectious diseases (West Nile Virus), by applying a combination of hydrologic and hydraulic modeling, machine learning algorithms, field experiments, laboratory work, and statistical modeling. Navideh is a member of the epidemiology team at IDM where she works on developing an algorithm to identify high-risk pregnancies as well as continuing her work on transmission dynamics of infectious diseases using mathematical, statistical and machine learning models."

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Monique Ambrose is Research Scientist on the malaria team at IDM. Prior to joining IDM, Monique was a NSF Graduate Research Fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Her academic research focused on developing and fitting mechanistic models of zoonotic pathogens’ transmission dynamics. These models were used to answer applied questions, such as identifying epidemiological and behavioral shifts that contributed to an increase in human monkeypox incidence and assessing the expected effects of potential interventions in minimizing spillover of swine influenza into humans. Monique has a PhD in Biology from UCLA and a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

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Roy holds a PhD from the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington. Prior to coming to IDM, Roy worked at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), first as a Data Analyst and later as a Researcher while completing his PhD. Roy has worked on a range of quantitative global health projects including: primary data collection from health facilities in four countries, quantifying cause-specific severity distributions of non-fatal health loss for the Global Burden of Disease project, subnational analysis of maternal and child health interventions in Nigeria, development of new methods for child mortality estimation, continent-scale geospatial analysis of child mortality, and spatial analysis of healthcare utilization in Zambia. At IDM, Roy works on modeling health service delivery.

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Katherine Rosenfeld works on building and analyzing epidemiological models in support of measles control and eradication.  Her research focuses on how to effectively couple robust modeling and computation with passive and active intervention strategies.  She earned a BS in Astronomy from Yale University and a PhD in Astronomy and Astrophysics from Harvard University.

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Mollie Van Gordon is a Research Scientist in the Data, Dynamics, and Analytics group at IDM. Mollie earned her Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley in the Geography department with a designated emphasis in Computational Science and Engineering. Her research spanned the fields of climate Dynamics, Land Cover Change, Remote Sensing, Machine Learning, Hydrology, and Complex Systems. As part of her graduate work, Mollie created a high-resolution land cover dataset for the West African Sahel based on satellite imaging, hand-classified maps, and machine learning techniques. This dataset, and the tool developed to create it, have since been deployed in West Africa for use as inputs into food security modeling, climate change adaptation planning, national resource management, and international reporting on forests, agriculture, and carbon stores. Her other graduate research, also based in West Africa, included spatial-temporal pattern recognition and analysis of precipitation trends, as well as systems analysis of small-scale watershed hydrology using information theory. Mollie's undergraduate degree from Barnard College of Columbia University includes training in astronomy, physics, women's studies, and international development studies. Her work experience includes women's and environmental advocacy at the United Nations; global water, sanitation, and hygiene development; and consulting for family planning and climate change adaptation efforts in the Sahel. Mollie's research interests include developing data-driven methods with wide-ranging applications; bringing data science methods to data-sparse environments; developing creative solutions to intractable problems; and determining how to ask the right questions.

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Jessica Ribado is a postdoctoral research scientist on the Data, Dynamics, and Analytics team. She is interested in integrating genomic data into disease transmission models. Prior to joining IDM, her doctoral research focused on understanding the effects of gut microbiome interventions in humans and mice. She used a variety of sequencing technologies (amplicon, shotgun whole genome, nanopore) to evaluate bacterial community differences between interventions and to complete genomes of novel organisms. Jessica earned her Ph.D. in Genetics at Stanford University and holds B.S. degrees in Statistics and Biological Science from Florida State University.

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Cliff is a Senior Research Scientist on the Applied Math team, working on topics including optimization algorithm development, modeling of family planning interventions, and value-of-information analyses. He has a B.S. in neuroscience from the University of Queensland, a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of Sydney, and a Diploma of Arts from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. His postdoctoral work, as part of a DARPA project at the SUNY Downstate Medical Center, looked at how detailed computer simulations of a monkey brain could be used to make robotic arms to pick up balls. With funding from the Australian Research Council, he extended this work in his own lab at the University of Sydney, exploring the neural basis of computation. Simultaneously, he was a co-founder, director, and the head of software for the Optima Consortium for Decision Science, a nonprofit consultancy that has helped more than 50 countries plan health investment decisions using the Optima suite of tools. In addition to his work in neuroscience and public health, he has worked internationally as both a pianist and composer, with performances in Sydney, New York, London, and Lithuania.

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Charles Eliot received a B.Sc. degree in Chemistry from MIT, then studied at Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship. Charles worked at Microsoft for almost 25 years in a variety of engineering management roles, including Head of Engineering Services for Skype. Charles leads IDM's Software Engineering organization, providing world-class software tools and services to support our contributions to eradicating infectious disease.

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Ali has a strong educational background in Systems Architecture including a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Information Technology from the University of Maryland. Ali performed duties at various roles within the Information Technology industry throughout his professional career, including roles as a Systems Engineer for Department of Defense in Hawaii, A Systems Architect role for Lockheed Martin, and a Systems Engineer for Microsoft. With a handful of accompanying I.T. certificates, Ali also has an Associate Degree in Network Administration. As a member of the software team, Ali will be focusing on Automation and deployments of our Enterprise Linux solutions.

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Sharon Chen works the web services test team at IDM responsible for the test, validation and quality control of web service components and systems. Sharon has a Master of Engineering in Computer Science from Portland State University and Electric Engineer from Beijing JiaoTong University, China. Sharon earned Bachelor degree of Electric Engineer from Northern China Electric Power University, China. Sharon has been working in IT since 1998. Most of these years are quality assurance engineer and SDET, early few years were also software engineer. Previously, she worked at Cision with platform team responsible for testing large data collection and searching/indexing services. Prior to that, Sharon worked at few different software companies and testing from backend to front end to mobile device. Outside of work, Sharon likes to go to gym as much as possible.

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Meikang has a Master degree in Computer Science from the University of Houston, she started her career as a programmer in the oil and gas industry and grew interest in the fields of software test automation. She has worked as an SDET for five years in Microsoft SQL Server team and later on joined several startups focusing on building test infrastructure and continuous integration system. Her role in IDM focuses on the Data Services, she builds automation for testing the data pipeline and uses innovative ways to discover data issues.

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Amanda Orcutt is an Administrative Assistant for IDM, having held a similar position at a Fortune 200 company in Manhattan, NYC. Amanda earned two Bachelor of Arts degrees in Women's and Gender Studies and Psychology from Pace University in NYC. After graduation, Amanda planned to spend the summer volunteering with an NGO in Uganda working with elementary school children at two schools. She was asked to extend her volunteer service, and spent the next year teaching health, hygiene and elementary classes. She also developed curriculums and teaching models, so that this teaching could continue with local teachers. Amanda has traveled back to Uganda several times to visit the 10 children she met there and is putting through school.  Amanda grew up in North Bend, WA, and her passion for the Pacific Northwest keeps bringing her back! She loves almost every outdoor activity, and spends as much of her free time as possible hiking, camping, backpacking and skiing.

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Jason has a Bachelor's of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from Washington State University with a minor in Mathematics and emphasis in Computer Science. Jason has served in many capacities in the IT field from service desk for the Federal Aviation Administration to systems architect at Microsft. In addition to his 11+ years in IT, he programmed LiDAR instruments at Pacific Northwest National Labs and was an accounting manager for Red Lion Hotels. He is excited to bring his broad experience to IDMod and eager to further expand his knowledge and skillset here.

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Kate worked for the Malaria Atlas Project (MAP) at the University of Oxford from 2010 to 2020, with whom she completed her DPhil in 2015. Kate obtained her BA in Secondary Education and Biology from Boston College in 2002. She spent six years teaching in the Chicago area where she received an MA in Teaching from Roosevelt University. In 2008, Kate transitioned to public health research through an MSc in the Control of Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Following field entomology work in the Kenyan highlands, Kate joined MAP. For her doctoral work, Kate focused on the spatial epidemiology and burden estimation of Plasmodium vivax malaria. As a postdoc and then the Director of Malaria Mapping for Elimination at MAP, Kate worked closely with the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) and other partners to provide technical support for control and elimination planning. Kate’s main interest is increasing the accessibility and utility of modelled outputs to malaria control programs.

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Natalia Corona is currently the Research Program Manager at the Institute for Disease Modeling, supporting research teams across Global Health and Global Development. Prior to joining IDM, Natalia worked as a senior quality engineer, project lead, and quality manager in the medical devices industry. She also volunteered with the Greater Austin chapter of Engineers Without Borders-USA as the Director of Projects, leading teams in developing water storage, distribution, and sanitation solutions in LMICs. Most recently, Natalia supported projects and initiatives at the IV Lab. Natalia holds a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

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Jamie Cohen is a Research Scientist at IDM. Jamie has a Ph.D. in Health Policy from Harvard University, with a concentration in Decision Sciences, and a Master of Science in Health Policy and Management from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. As a doctoral candidate, Jamie developed a novel microsimulation model of HIV, HPV and cervical disease among women in South Africa. This model was used to evaluate cervical cancer screening and vaccination strategies in an HIV-endemic setting. As a member of the IDM research team, Jamie will use her background in mathematical modeling and applied health policy analysis to support the development, calibration, and application of IDM’s numerous disease models.

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Shirley Leung has a Ph.D. in physical oceanography and an M.S. in environmental engineering from the University of Washington. Her PhD work focused on modeling how climate variability and change affect ocean ecosystems and the people dependent on them. She has also analyzed hydrologic model output at the United States Geological Survey and traffic patterns with the Washington State Transportation Center. As part of the malaria team at IDM, Shirley seeks to evaluate and refine models of mosquito gene drives for malaria elimination.

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Greer Fowler has a Masters Degree in Health Administration from the University of Washington. She has a Bachelors Degree in Studio Art with an emphasis on painting and drawing from Whitman College. Greer has always enjoyed working to benefit the greater good. Prior to IDM she worked in healthcare with roles in program management, administration and process improvement. At IDM she supports project management and coordination for the Research team. In her spare time, Greer enjoys travel, art, and thrives on being active in the great outdoors.

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Josh Herbeck is a Senior Research Scientist at the Institute for Disease Modeling (IDM) in Seattle, WA. He is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington. He has a BS in Biology from Tufts University, and a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, where he focused on the molecular evolution of mitochondrial genes. At IDM, he uses mathematical modeling and phylogenetics to study infectious disease transmission and surveillance. Right now he is mostly focused on HIV evolution and epidemiology and is interested in the capacity of HIV to evolve in response to vaccines or broadly neutralizing antibodies, and in the use of phylogenetic data to understand patterns of transmission.

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Michelle O'Brien has a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Washington, where she specialized in Demographic Methods. Her research asks how violent conflict (including war, genocide, and hate crimes) affect demographic decision-making. As a doctoral student, she worked on a team developing a survey-initialized agent-based model to assess the demographic consequences of hypothetical conflict scenarios in Nepal. For her dissertation, she examined the long-term consequences of the Tajikistani Civil War for abortion and miscarriage, migration, and girls' education. Prior to joining IDM, Michelle was a postdoctoral research fellow with the Mershon Center for International Security Studies and at New York University Abu Dhabi, where she extended her work to the aftermath of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Michelle has joined the Family Planning team as a research scientist to support data-driven efforts to increase access to safe, effective, and voluntary family planning services.

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Matt Schneider is a research scientist focused on quantitative approaches to improve healthcare delivery and health systems. Most recently before joining IDM and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Matt completed his dissertation and research at the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. His PhD focused on using Bayesian statistical approaches to estimate health financing for primary health care systems in low- and middle-income countries and econometric analyses to measure the relationship between these expenditures and health outcomes. He also contributed to the Prospective Country Evaluation of the Global Fund, a mixed methods evaluation of the Global Fund business model's impact. Prior to returning to Washington for his PhD studies, Matt was a technical advisor at the United States Agency for International Development within the Office of HIV/AIDS' health system strengthening team, working with US government programs and partners in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe.

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Philip Welkhoff is the Director for Malaria at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, joining in 2018 to lead BMGF’s Malaria strategy, and in 2021 he also became interim Director of the Institute for Disease Modeling at BMGF. Previously, he served as director of research at the Institute for Disease Modeling (IDM). There, he helped develop computer simulations of malaria, polio, and other disease transmission dynamics to assist public health professionals and other scientists in planning the eradication of different diseases. Philip received a Special Achievement Award by a Hertz Fellow in 2009 for his work on malaria modeling. He earned dual undergraduate degrees in mathematics and aerospace engineering at The University of Texas, Austin and holds a PhD in applied and computational mathematics from Princeton University. At Princeton, his work focused on biophysically-inspired models of neural circuits for perceptual decision making. He has served on the Board of the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation and now serves as a senior interviewer.

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