Dear Colleagues,

We continue our Colloquium in the Math Department.

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Edward R Rozema

Department of Mathematics, UTC

Thursday, September 29, EMCS 233, 3:10 pm.

Modeling Epidemics

Abstract. Recent events have led to an increased interest in emerging
infectious diseases. Mathematical modeling can contribute to our
understanding on many levels by predicting the future course of the disease,
clarifying relationships between classes of individuals, establishing
threshold values and evaluating the effectiveness of different types of
controls.

This talk will apply various models to the SARS epidemic of 2003 and a
measles outbreak in the Netherlands in 1999-2000. We will take an historical
approach beginning with the logistic curve popularized by Raymond Pearl and
Lowell J. Reed in the 1920s. We will then consider F. J. Richards'
generalization in 1959 using a shape parameter. We next use systems of
differential equations, an approach initiated by W. O. Kermack and A. G.
McKendrick in 1927. We end with a proposed system that incorporates
Richards' shape parameter.

We have this room for further discussions until 5:00 pm.

The talk should be accessible to faculty and students who have had an
introduction to differential equations.

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The next speaker will be Aniekan Ebiefung, Department of Mathematics, UTC,
Tuesday, October 4, The Generalized Linear Complementary Problem: Least
Element Theory and Z-matrices.

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Boris P Belinskiy

Department of Mathematics, Dept. 6956

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Ph. (423) 425-4748