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In the News

April 2024 graduate spotlight on Anayse Miller

March 2024 graduate spotlight on Nora Heitzman-Breen

Faculty

Research Interests: dynamical systems and control theory, with a focus on biologically inspired problems and multi-agent systems and their collective behavior

Lauren M. Childs

Research Interests: development and analysis mathematical and computational models to examine biologically-motivated questions

Stanca Ciupe

Research Interests: systems of delay differential equations and their application to biology and medicine with applications to characterization of immune system onset and reaction against viral diseases such as SARS-CoV-2, HIV, Hepatitis B and Dengue

Angela Peace

Research Interests: Dynamical systems applied to problems in theoretical ecology and epidemiology, with a focus on populations dynamics of invasive species.

Michael Robert

Research Interests: ecological, evolutionary, and anthropological drivers of emergence, spread, and control of infectious diseases through the development and analysis of mathematical models

Omar Saucedo

Research Interests: modeling infectious diseases, with an emphasis on using deterministic dynamical systems to address various epidemiological questions

Postdocs

Kyle Dahlin

Postdoc

Mentors: Dr. Lauren Childs and Dr. Michael Robert
Research Interests: Mathematical ecology and vector-borne disease modeling

Bari Hridoy

Postdoc

Mentor: Dr. Lauren Childs
Research Interests: Mathematical modeling and analysis of infectious diseases with a focus on stochastic dynamics, seasonality and data-driven methods to inform public health interventions

Leah LeJeune

Postdoc

Mentors: Dr. Lauren Childs and Dr. Omar Saucedo
Research Interests: Modeling the spread and control of infectious disease through analysis of mathematical models, particularly deterministic dynamical systems.

Nusrat Tabassum

Postdoc

Mentor: Dr. Michael Robert
Research Interests: Mathematical ecology, vector-borne disease, epidemiology of infectious diseases, data integration, mathematical and statistical models

Current Students

Ph.D. Students

Ben Bruncati

Ph.D. Candidate

Advisor: Dr. Michael Robert
Research Interests: Thermal performance curves of mosquitoes, impacts of climate change on mosquito populations and disease transmission

Paola Deniz

Ph.D. Candidate

Advisor: Dr. Lauren Childs
Research Interests: My research interests are in infectious disease modeling and computational methods for parameter estimation, combining mathematical analysis and simulations to better understand disease dynamics.

Megan Grey

Ph.D. Candidate

Advisor: Dr. Nicole Abaid
Research Interests: Transfer Entropy of Gray Bats and collective behavior

Anayse Miller

Ph.D. Candidate

Advisor: Dr. Lauren Childs
Research Interests: Mathematical biology and model development.

Sirawit (Alex) Srakaew

Ph.D. Candidate

Advisor: Dr. Stanca Ciupe
Research Interests: Mathematical modeling of within-host HIV dynamics to study mechanisms of post-treatment control

M.S. Students

Ethan Dolin

M.S. Candidate

Advisor: Dr. Nicole Abaid
Research Interests:

Casey Lang

M.S. Candidate

Advisor: Dr. Omar Saucedo
Research Interests: Infectious disease modeling, ecology, and data fitting.

Kristiana Nakaj

M.S. Candidate

Advisor: Dr. Michael Robert
Research Interests: Mathematical modeling of cooperation, evolution, and complex system dynamics with applications in biology and epidemiology.

Kris Pasia

M.S. Candidate

Advisor: Dr. Stanca Ciupe
Research Interests: Mathematical modeling of viral diseases and treatment optimization

Ahmad Rahman

M.S. Candidate

Advisor: Dr. Nicole Abaid
Research Interests:

Giacomo Scilla

M.S. Candidate

Advisor: Dr. Daniel Appelo
Research Interests: Mathematical modeling (especially but not limited to climate and biology), computational math, bifurcation theory, numerical analysis

Associated Members

Peter Caruso

Instructor, Mathematics

Research Interests:

Mohammad Mihrab Uddin Chowdhury

Visiting Assistant Professor

Research Interests: Infectious disease modeling (mechanistic & data-driven), Vector-borne diseases (mosquitoes), Wastewater-based epidemiology, Environmental and climate influences on disease spread, Wildlife disease ecology (e.g., salamander fungal disease), and Machine learning approaches for public health

Sean Clark

Undergraduate

Advisor:Anayse Miller and Dr. Lauren Childs
Research Interests: Computational modelling in various fields such as biology, engineering, and education, with a focus on utilizing partial and ordinary differential equations and linear algebra to advance existing models and gain novel insights

Ashiqur Rahman

Ph.D. candidate in Mechanical Engineering

Advisor: Dr. Nicole Abaid
Research Interests: Complex Systems, Dynamical Systems, Engineering Modeling and Simulation

Alumni

Postdocs

Keoni Castellano, Ph.D. (2024 - 2025)

Mentor: Dr. Stanca Ciupe

Sumeyye Bakim, Ph.D. (2023 - 2024)

Mentor: Dr. Nicole Abaid

Laura Strube, Ph.D. (2020 - 2022)

Mentor: Dr. Lauren Childs
First position: Postdoc, University of Pittsburgh

Associated Members

Jessica Cunningham, Ph.D. (2024 - 2025)

Lihong Zhao, Ph.D. (2023 - 2024)

First position: Assistant Professor, Kennesaw State University

Ph.D. Students

Eighdi Aung, Ph.D. (2025)

Advisor: Dr. Nicole Abaid

Amanda Hasimoto, Ph.D. (2025)

Advisor: Dr. Nicole Abaid

Quiyana Murphy, Ph.D. (2025)

Advisor: Dr. Stanca Ciupe
First position: Postdoc, University of Michigan

Nora Heitzman-Breen, Ph.D. (2024)

Advisor: Dr. Stanca Ciupe
First position:Postdoc, University of Colorado, Boulder

Melody Walker, Ph.D. (2021)

Advisor: Dr. Lauren Childs
First position: Postdoc, Laboratory for Systems Medicine, University of Florida

Sarah Kadelka, Ph.D. (2020)

Advisor: Dr. Stanca Ciupe
First position: Postdoc, Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Ryan Nikin-Beers, Ph.D. (2018)

Advisor: Dr. Stanca Ciupe
First position: Postdoc, Mathematics Department, University of Florida

Samantha Erwin, Ph.D. (2017)

Advisor: Dr. Stanca Ciupe
First position: Postdoc, NCSU College of Veterinary Medicine

M.S. Students

Nicolas Puglisi, M.S. (2024)

Advisor: Dr. Omar Saucedo

Anayse Miller, M.S. (2024)

Advisor: Dr. Lauren Childs
First position: Continued to Ph.D. with Dr. Childs at VT

Megan Grey, M.S. (2023)

Advisor: Dr. Nicole Abaid
First position: Continued to Ph.D. with Dr. Abaid at VT

Peter Caruso, M.S. (2023)

Advisor: Dr. Nicole Abaid
First position: Instructor, Virginia Tech

Tatiane Swap, M.S. (2023)

Advisor: Dr. Lauren Childs

Nora Heitzman-Breen, M.S. (2021)

Advisor: Dr. Stanca Ciupe
First position: Continued to Ph.D. with Dr. Ciupe at VT

Quiyana Murphy, M.S. (2021)

Advisor: Dr. Stanca Ciupe
First position: Continued to Ph.D. with Dr. Ciupe at VT

NiCole Nardella, M.S. (2021)

Advisor: Dr. Lauren Childs
First position: Researcher at Moffitt Cancer Research Center

Ryan Hughes, M.S. (2019)

Advisor: Dr. Lauren Childs
First position: Data analyst at KBR

Melody Walker, M.S. (2018)

Advisor: Dr. Lauren Childs
First position: Continued to Ph.D. with Dr. Childs at VT

Andrea Carracedo Rodriguez, M.S. (2015)

Advisor: Dr. Stanca Ciupe
First position: Continued to Ph.D. with Dr. Serkan Gugercin at VT

Sarah Kadelka, M.S. (2015)

Advisor: Dr. Stanca Ciupe
First position: Continued to Ph.D. with Dr. Ciupe at VT

April Saul, M.S. (2015)

Advisor: Dr. Stanca Ciupe
First position: Continued education in Actuarial Science and Economics at Roanoke College

Ryan Nikin-Beers, M.S. (2014)

Advisor: Dr. Stanca Ciupe
First position: Continued to Ph.D. with Dr. Ciupe at VT

Math Biology at VT

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In the News

Faculty

Current Students

Associated Members

Alumni