Seminars
Weekly Seminar Series
During academic term-time we run a virtual weekly seminar series on Wednesday 12:00-13:00 (UK time). Talks are highly interdisciplinary with previous speakers including members of government, public health experts as well as researchers from the mathematical sciences. The speakers for Spring Term 2023 are listed below.
18th Jan Maria Gutierrez (University of Cambridge)
25th Jan Ana Bento (Rockefeller Centre & Indiana University - Bloomington)
1st Feb Li Pi (University of Oxford) & Desmond Lai (University of Cambridge)
8th Feb Eduard Campillo-Funollet (Lancaster University)
15th Feb Koen Powells (University of Oxford)
22nd Feb Hannah Clapham (NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health)
1st March Philip O'Neill (University of Nottingham)
8th March Petra Klepac (University of Cambridge)
15th March Nick Trojanskis (University of Cambridge)
22nd March Ruth Bowness (University of Bath)
29th March Adam Finn (University of Bristol)
If you are interested in attending please sign up here and if you are interested in giving a talk please contact juniper@maths.cam.ac.uk .
Monthly Seminar Series
During 2021 and the first part of 2022 (during the period of UKRI funding) we ran a public monthly seminar supported by the Isaac Newton Institute (INI). Recordings of the talks are available here.
Research Meetings
JUNIPER consortium run regular research meetings. During 2021 these were virtual and supported by the Isaac Newton Institute (INI). These meetings provided an update on the COVID-19 modelling work being undertaken across the different institutions within the consortium. Speakers also highlighted key research areas of immediate priority to support the scientific advice on the UK government's pandemic response. These meetings were run virtually (due to the social distancing restrictions in place) and were open to all.
Virtual Meetings at INI
The first in the series of research meetings, which was also the launch meeting for the consortium, took place on 23rd February 2021. Research talks covered a wide range of topics including: vaccine escape, contact tracing, testing strategies for school reopening, transmission in care homes, spatial epidemic models, uncertainty quantification for covid-19 models and household bubbles. Talks were followed by a lively panel discussion with key points raised around the need to consider visualisation approaches with respect to the presentation of epidemiology modelling results to policy makers and the public as well as the need to incorporate economics into current epidemic models of covid-19. Recordings of the talks are available on the INI website here.
The second research meeting took place on 17th May 2021. Research talks covered a wide range of topics including: incorporating economics into epidemiology models for COVID-19, the uses of contact survey data during the COVID-19 pandemic and challenges in short term projections of COVID-19 to support UK control strategy. There was also a talk by early career researchers, Dr Rob Challen and Dr Ed Hill, on recent work on understanding trends and potential impacts of new variants, including the delta variant. Recordings of the talks are available on the INI website here.
The last virtual research meeting held via INI, which took place on 7th-8th Dec 2021, highlighted the key COVID-19 related research undertaken over the past year since the consortium was created. Topics included: COVID-19 in education settings, identifying early signatures of novel variants, contact tracing and modelling of the UK roadmaps. The Early Career Researchers within the consortium also showcased the huge breadth of research undertaken through their elevator pitch talks. Finally the two half days ended with a look at what we might expect from COVID-19 in the future with a panel discussion on this topic with the JUNIPER investigators. Recordings of the talks are available on the INI website here.
In-Person Meetings
At the end of March 2022 we had our first in-person JUNIPER research meeting. The meeting was attended by members of the consortium, research collaborators and members of government who the consortium worked closely with during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Talks covered the key research themes including: Education, Vulnerable Settings, Preparedness and Variants. There was also a pub quiz, and a mentoring session to support development of early career researchers. Everyone greatly benefited from being able to discuss research in person with many of the researchers meeting each other for the first time after two years of working together virtually.
Our next in-person research meeting is due to be held in March 2023 in Warwick. This event is primarily by invite only, however if you would be interested to find out more please contact juniper@maths.cam.ac.uk .
