Abstract:
I'll discuss the current state of the COVID-19 pandemic in India, concentrating on what we know and what we don't, and what we might reasonably expect in the future. I'll then go on to discuss how modeling can help us think about a number of questions of current relevance: How should we structure our vaccination program, how should we structure testing, how can we think of reopening schools, what happens if a new variant appears etc. I'll describe two major models I have been involved in developing: INDSCI-SIM and BharatSim, and discuss how they are applied to the Indian pandemic.
Bio:
Gautam Menon is a Professor of Physics and Biology at Ashoka University, Sonepat and at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Biological Sciences at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. He is the current Director of the Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability at Ashoka University. A statistical physicist and biophysicist by training, the modeling of infectious disease and its implications for public policy is a long-standing interest of his. Apart from his scientific work, he is interested in making science accessible to the public.