Alumni

Kristina Talbert-Slagle received her Ph.D. in 2010 from the Yale University School of Public Health, Division of Epidemiology of Microbial Disease. She joins the Galvani lab as a Global Health Postdoctoral Fellow with the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale. Dr. Talbert-Slagle conducted her dissertation research in the laboratory, studying the cellular and molecular interactions that contribute to HIV persistence as well as mechanisms of cell transformation and carcinogenesis caused by papillomaviruses. She will employ her understanding of molecular biology to create mathematical models of within-host infectious disease dynamics, initially by exploring the effect of the innate immune response on viral replication during the earliest days of HIV infection.

Yoko Ibuka received a Ph.D. in Economics from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, in May 2008 and joined Galvani group in July 2008. She is interested in the application of economic analysis to study issues in health and medicine. Currently, her research focuses on the analysis regarding interventions and policies for infectious diseases. Her other research interests include the technical aspects of the analysis. This is an extension of her doctoral work that developed a Bayesian approach to model patient-level dependence in cost-effectiveness analysis.

Jingzhou Liu received his Ph.D. from the Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics at Cornell University in Aug 2009. Before he went to Cornell, he spent 7 years in Beijing Normal University, where he obtained both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics. His research interests lie in the application of mathematical modeling and computer simulation to solving the problems in physics, epidemiology, economics and finance. Currently, he is working on two projects: game-theoretic modeling of chickenpox vaccination and imitation dynamics of vaccination on social networks.

Yonas Tekle received his PhD and postdoctoral training in the study of comparative systematics (morphological and molecular) of medical and non-medical microbes. He used genome data to understand the diversity and relationships of living organisms. Dr. Tekle is extremely fascinated by interdisciplinary research approaches in answering challenging questions that affect our everyday life. He is particularly interested in integrating bioinformatics with mathematical modeling in order to understand the evolution and epidemics of infectious diseases. His current project includes understanding the evolution and transmission dynamics of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) within and beyond hospitals.

Sanjay is interested in evaluating clinical interventions against infectious diseases using operations research methods and epidemic models. He received his undergraduate training at M.I.T. and his Master's degree from Oxford. He is currently in the M.D./Ph.D. program at Yale.

Beth graduated with a double major in Applied Mathematics and Biology in 2007. For her senior thesis, she explored childhood disease vaccination from a game theoretic perspective. She is interested in using mathematical models to study the ecology and evolution of infectious disease. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Biology at Emory University.

Paula Luz is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Public Health, Yale University. She is interested in the integration of ecology and epidemiology for the study of vector-borne diseases, especially dengue. The focus is comparative analysis of control strategies. She received her M.D. from Fluminense Federal University in 2002, and her M.Sc. from Rio de Janeiro State Universtiy in 2005.

Evan Orenstein is a senior majoring in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. He is interested in exploring how mathematical models can guide clinical decision making and public health policy. Currently, he is working on a clinical decision rule to determine appropriate empiric treatment of HIV-TB coinfected patients in a setting with high TB drug resistance. In his spare time, he devotes himself to juggling 5 balls and the quest to eat two whole pizzas.

Dr. Poolman received his M.D. from the Yale School of Medicine, and his M.B.A. from Yale School of Management, in 2005. He is interested in the epidemiological modeling of health policies regarding infectious disease, particularly the perverse effects when interactions between pathogens and between individual pathogen strains are taken into account. His recent and current work is on human papillomavirus, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, and H.I.V. He is currently doing a family practice residency at the Ventura County Medical Center.

Dr. Reluga is a mathematical theoretical biologist interested in problems in immunology, ecology, and population biology in general. Notable examples of his work include the game theory of vaccination choices, the spatial spread of epidemics, and the theory of antibiotic resistance control.

Tim was born and raised in central Connecticut, the son of a high school English teacher and a high school biology teacher. He completed his undergraduate studies at Tufts University, where he was a double major in biology and mathematics. He did undergraduate research in both areas. Upon completing his undergraduate studies, Tim enrolled in the University of Washington's doctoral program in Applied Mathematics. His doctoral dissertation developed several new approaches for the study of spatial and temporal heterogeneity in population ecology.

Following the completion of his degree, Tim spent two years studying epidemiology in the Galvani lab, and a year in the Perelson group at Los Alamos. He is currently an assistant professor of mathematics at the Pennsylvania State University.

Dave completed his MPH at the Yale school of Epidemiology and Public Health. Before pursuing his MPH, he worked for a decade in and around San Francisco as a programmer and systems developer, in both the private and non-profit sectors. He is interested in applying his technical capacity building skills to international health problems.