Past Special Workshop

To sign up, please register your interest using this sign-up form by Thursday 30th November 2023 at the latest. Places will be confirmed by 5th December 2023. This workshop will take place at St Hilda's College, and is funded by the JUNIPER Consortium and Isaac Newton Institute.

Climate change is the key threat to this and future generations. With the Earth warming faster than ever before, we face inter-linked migration, infrastructure and public health challenges. In 2023, parts of Europe saw their hottest summer on record while other places have experienced unprecedented levels of rainfall and devastating floods. 

Many infectious diseases are climate-sensitive. For example, the locations and sizes of mosquito populations are linked to climate, which in turn affects the transmission of mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue and malaria. Therefore, changes in climate are altering the spatial and seasonal patterns of infections over time, putting millions of people at risk. In order to be more resilient to the health challenges posed by climate change, it is critical to understand its impacts on infectious diseases, both in the UK and globally.

The aim of this workshop is to bring together mathematical modellers, epidemiologists, climate scientists and public health specialists to identify key open challenges in our understanding of how climate change affects infectious diseases. The one-day workshop will consist of a series of talks and sessions covering the following themes:

• Changes to infectious disease threats under a changing climate and regions most affected
• Measures and initiatives to mitigate and build resilience in the UK and globally
• Knowledge gaps that need to be filled to limit the impact of climate-sensitive infectious diseases
• Challenges presented by climate-sensitive infectious diseases that provide opportunities to improve public health

The main aim of this event is to catalyse discussion between individuals in the research areas of climate science, infectious disease modelling and public health, fostering collaborations that address key challenges relating to climate-sensitive infectious diseases. Please note: this workshop is in-person only.

Organisers:

Robin Thompson (University of Oxford), Helena Stage (University of Bristol), Alexander Kaye (University of Warwick)

We will be celebrating the discovery of 'The Hat', a tile which tiles only aperiodically, on the 20th and 21st July in Oxford University's Mathematical Institute.

Confirmed speakers include Prof. Sir Roger Penrose (Oxford), Prof. Rachel Greenfeld (Institute for Advanced Study), Prof. Jarkko Kari (Turku), Prof. Natalie Priebe-Frank (Vassar), Prof. Lorenzo Sadun (UT Austin), Prof. Marjorie Senechal (Smith College), and the authors of The Hat pre-print. There will be space for a small number of contributed talks.

The first day will consist of talks accessible to the public, ending in a panel discussion between the speakers, chaired by Dr Henna Koivusalo (Bristol). The second day will be colloquium-style talks aimed at the broadest possible audience of mathematicians and physicists. There will also be exhibits by a number of invited artists, and activities related to aperiodic tilings.

The event is free and open to the public. There will be funding available to cover the travel and accommodation costs of PhD students, Postdocs, and Early Career Researchers, courtesy of the Institute of Physics' Theory of Condensed Matter group and the Heilbronn Institute for Mathematical Research.

To register please visit the dedicated website

For more information please contact the organisers: Felix Flicker (@email), Nick Jones (@email), Henna Koivusalo (@email), and Mike Whittaker (@email).

This will be the second meeting of The Grimm Network, a regular series of workshops held in memory of Prof. Uwe Grimm. The first event will be on the 18th July at the Open University (UK). It is also free to attend, with accessible talks aimed at building connections across a broad range of disciplines. Speakers will include Profs. Michael Baake and Franz Gähler (Bielefeld), and Maciej Koch-Janusz (details in link above).