Applying Game Theory to Vaccination Planning

Who should receive the COVID-19 vaccination first?  Using game theory, the mathematical way of modeling how people make strategic decisions within a group, two renowned researchers model different ways of prioritizing vaccinations to see which path saves more lives. Join us on Wednesday, January 13 @ 2pm EST/ 11am PST to hear from special guests, Dr. Madhur Anand, ecologist and poet, and her husband, Dr. Chris Bauch, mathematical biologist.

Dr. Madhur Anand is a professor of ecology and sustainability at The University of Guelph, Ontario, where she was appointed director of the Guelph Institute for Environmental Research. Internationally recognized ecologist with research interests in modelling human-environment systems, she has collaborated with mathematicians, theoretical physicists, statisticians, computer scientists and poets on aspects of human health, and sustainability.  She is also an accomplished poet and writer, serving on several international journal editorial boards and grant selection panels. 

Dr. Chris Bauch is a professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics at the University of Waterloo, Canada. His research program applies mathematics to real-world problems in infectious diseases, ecology, social science, and sustainability.  He has developed mathematical models of the transmission of infectious diseases such as measles, smallpox, influenza, human papillomavirus, SARS and COVID-19.  His particular focus is on how disease spread responds to aspects of population behaviour such as physical distancing, mask use, and vaccines.  His research partners have included the WHO, the United States FDA, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.