The group will visit seven top-tier universities and research institutes during their trip. Along the way they will stop at the India Institute of Technology's facilities in Mumbai (Bombay) and Madras, the University of Calcutta, the Indian Space Research Organization, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research together with visits to other institutes and universities during the nation-wide trip

“Our faculty considers international partnerships as the key cornerstone supporting our strategic priorities. Partnerships like those with India stimulate the spirit of innovation with clear focus on research outcomes that have an international impact,” says Janusz Kozinski (right), dean of the Faculty of Science & Engineering at �첥��Ƶ and a member of the delegation to India.

The key mandate for the trip is to enable researchers from �첥��Ƶ and across India to establish joint bilateral research and development projects. Halfway through their trip, the York delegation will pause to participate in a two-day workshop co-sponsored by the International Science & Technology Partnerships Canada, Global Innovation & Technology Alliance, the Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering & Research and India's Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO).

The workshop will bring together more than 100 participants from research institutes and universities from Canada and England, and will include researchers and university vice-chancellors from across India. Rajagopala Chidambaram, the principal scientific adviser to the government of India, and Vijay Kumar Saraswat, director-general of DRDO, the secretary of defence research and development and scientific adviser to Indian Defence Minister Raksha Mantri, are among the diginitaries participating in the workshop.

This workshop will give participants the opportunity to discuss advances and innovations in their respective areas of research, exchange information and ideas and create further opportunities to establish research collaborations. The gathering will be held at the DRDO building in New Dehli.

Travelling in the �첥��Ƶ Science & Engineering delegation are:

• , professor, Department of Chemistry;
• , professor, Department of Physics & Astronomy and associate dean of academic affairs in the Faculty of Graduate Studies;
• , professor, Department of Earth & Space Science and Engineering;
• , professor, Department of Computer Science & Engineering
• , professor, Department of Languages, Literatures & Linguistics, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
• , professor, Department of Chemistry;
• , professor, Department of Mathematics & Statistics;
• Paulina Karwowska-Desaulniers, research officer, Faculty of Science & Engineering;
• , dean, Faculty of Science & Engineering and professor, Department of Earth & Space Science and Engineering;
• , professor, Department of Earth & Space Science and Engineering;
• Brian Solheim, adjunct professor, Department of Earth & Space Science and Engineering;
• , professor, Department of Biology.

For more information about the trip and the �첥��Ƶ Science & Engineering delegation, visit the website.

York computer science Professor Andrew Eckford is also .

Republished courtesy of YFile – �첥��Ƶ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Wu, a , is leading two prominent Canadian teams on modelling and geo-stimulation of disease spread, and coordinates a number of academic-industrial collaborations in data mining, neuronal networks and pattern recognition. He is also the Canadian leader of a Canada-China collaboration in disease management and modelling, funded by the International Development Research Centre and Canada Research Chair program.

Right: Jianhong Wu accepts his Award of Merit

Recently, Wu was awarded the Federation of Chinese Canadian Professionals (Ontario) Education Foundation’s 2010 Award of Merit for his expertise in the field of mathematical biology and epidemiology, during a ceremony and reception in Toronto. In the federation’s citation it was noted that Wu is recognized in Canada and internationally for his interdisciplinary research in modelling disease transmission.

“I feel deeply honored and humbled by the award,” says Wu. “I am very pleased that York's support for interdisciplinary research and outreach is also recognized by the federation that has been promoting interdisciplinary studies among the various professions.”

What makes Wu distinct in his field is his ability to make novel contributions and integrate industrial application and applied mathematics to his research repertoire, and significantly contribute to both pure and applied mathematics.

Left: Jianhong Wu

He is most known for his contributions to the field of disease modelling, where his work has made a permanent and positive impact on human health. During the 2003 SARS outbreak, he established and led a national team of more than 20 scientists from governmental agencies and medical and mathematical sciences to model the transmission dynamics and spread of infectious disease (see YFile, Dec. 9, 2003). The research conducted by Wu and his team led to the development of prediction and intervention strategies, which impacts directly on preparedness measures for an influenza pandemic.

His work has influenced various public health policies and has become the benchmark for researchers in the pandemic area and beyond.

Among his accomplishments, Wu is founding, and has co-authored 17 books and more than 280 articles in both pure mathematics and mathematical applications. He is the recipient of various honours, including the Humboldt Research Fellowship (Germany), Paul Erdos Visiting Professorship (Hungry), Cheung Kong Visiting Professorship (China) and New Pioneer Science & Technology Award (Skills for Change). He is an executive member of the York Institute for Health Research.

Republished courtesy of YFile– �첥��Ƶ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Knowing the answer could help in the development of mosquito density and control strategies as well as improvements to the current surveillance system for West Nile virus and other vector-borne diseases that may emerge, not only in Ontario, but across the country. It could also lead to a real-time warning system and better disease management by public health agencies.

Recently awarded a $100,000 research grant from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), Zhu will conduct a two-year research project, "Modeling and Risk Assessment of West Nile Virus Transmission Under Global Warming", as part of PHAC’s Pilot Infectious Disease Impact & Response Systems Program and its Clean Air Agenda. The objective is to conduct data mining and analysis, develop models for expected mosquito density given certain meteorological and environmental conditions, and establish a set of threshold conditions and criteria that are likely to be present before and during an outbreak.

Left: Huaiping Zhu

“Part of the pilot project is related to seeing how climate change will affect the virus in Ontario,” says , a professor in York’s Department of Mathematics & Statistics. Warmer weather makes a more conducive environment for mosquito breeding and virus incubation, and that holds true for other vectors as well. With global warming, mosquitoes are likely to expand their range and spread the virus into new areas.

In Ontario, there have been two outbreaks of the West Nile virus – one in 2003 and another in 2007. The curious thing about those two outbreaks, says Zhu, is “we didn’t have the maximum amount of mosquitoes in those years.” It seems counterintuitive that the outbreaks would occur during times when mosquitoes were not at peak levels. That, he says, may indicate that temperature and precipitation play a larger role in driving the spread of the disease than previously thought.

Zhu has the West Nile virus incidence data from the Ministry of Health & Long Term Care, the study’s collaborator, as well as the data on the temperature and amount of precipitation in Peel Region in Ontario since 2002. The first case of West Nile virus appeared in Ontario in 2001, with surveillance data collecting beginning the following year. With the data, Zhu and his research team can create models to assess the most likely scenario of when incidents of West Nile virus will surge. Once they have an idea of what is happening in Peel Region, they hope to expand the research to all of Ontario and eventually Canada. Part of the difficulty will be the narrow time frame Zhu has to work with each year – 16 weeks when mosquitoes are active in Ontario.

The preparation of the data has already been done using York’s Laboratory of Mathematical Parallel Systems (LAMPS) as part of Zhu’s 2007 Ministry of Research & Innovation research project, "Modeling, Surveillance, Prediction and Control of West Nile Virus in Ontario". LAMPS is a high-power parallel computing lab in the Department of Mathematics & Statistics, which Zhu, along with York Professors Steven Wang and Zijiang Yang, set up using a $250,045 grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and a matching grant from the Ontario Innovation Trust.

Zhu now needs to design models to plug the data into, which will hopefully tell him more about how the virus is spread to birds and the optimum temperature and amount of precipitation needed for an outbreak to occur. Another, part of the equation is mosquito reproduction and how that fluctuates with the weather. Then the information will need to be analyzed.

The whole idea, says Zhu, is to discover “what are the conditions that are needed to cause the West Nile virus.” To do this, it’s imperative to understand how the climate influences the host. “Only when this is clear, can we go on from there,” he says. Then they can begin to understand some of the other variables, such as how different landscapes affect mosquitoes across the country, what their preferred habitat is and whether it is true for all species of mosquito, and how the rate of evaporation plays into the equations.

“For that part it is more complicated,” says Zhu. “So depending on the results from the first part, we will know if it will be possible to develop it into a larger project taking into account those other factors.”

Although West Nile virus was first isolated in Uganda in 1937, it has progressively spread to Egypt, Israel, South Africa, Europe and North America.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

Reprinted courtesy of YFile, �첥��Ƶ’s daily e-bulletin.

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