Postdoctoral Fellowship: MPS-Ascend: Advancing Mosquito-borne Disease Models with Distributed Delay Equations

Kyle Dahlin博士被授予国家科学基金会数学和物理科学提升博士后研究奖学金（NSF MPS-Ascend），以开展与扩大STEM中代表性不足的群体参与有关的研究，教育和活动计划。该奖学金支持题为“用分布延迟方程推进蚊媒疾病模型”的研究项目。项目活动将在主办机构弗吉尼亚理工学院和州立大学进行，由Lauren Childs博士指导。蚊媒疾病是人类面临的最大挑战之一，但了解其驱动因素是一项挑战，因为传播涉及三种生物体：媒介、宿主和寄生虫之间的相互作用。该项目需要开发蚊媒疾病传播的新模型，通过三个目标将关键的生物和生态过程纳入其中：(i)将现实的蚊子摄食行为纳入数学模型；（ii）将行为动力学纳入蚊子-宿主接触模型；（三）将这些蚊子行为结合到疾病传播模型中。这项工作将与几项扩大参与的活动同时进行，旨在提高夏威夷原住民和其他太平洋岛民对STEM的参与，包括制定微积分课程，其中纳入了传统太平洋岛民海洋寻路实践的主题。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Dr. Kyle Dahlin is awarded a National Science Foundation Mathematical and Physical Sciences Ascending Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (NSF MPS-Ascend) to conduct a program of research, education, and activities related to broadening participation by groups underrepresented in STEM. This fellowship supports the research project entitled "Advancing Mosquito-borne Disease Models with Distributed Delay Equations". The project activities will be conducted at the host institution, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, under the mentorship of Dr. Lauren Childs.Mosquito-borne diseases are one of the greatest challenges faced by humanity, but understanding their drivers is a challenge as transmission involves interactions between three organisms: vector, host and parasite. This project entails developing novel models of mosquito-borne disease transmission to incorporate key biological and ecological processes via three objectives: (i) incorporate realistic mosquito feeding behaviors into mathematical models; (ii) integrate behavioral dynamics into mosquito-host contact models; and (iii) combine these mosquito behaviors into disease transmission models. This work will be conducted in parallel with several broadening participation activities aimed at increasing the participation of Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders in STEM, including the development of a calculus curriculum that incorporates topics from traditional Pacific Islander practices of oceanic wayfinding.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.