Congratulations to math.epi.lab member Wendy Xie!
Congratulations to Wendy for the successful completion of her PhD candidacy exams! Well done Wendy, we are proud of you!
Photo courtesy of Wendy Xie
Sharing our equine research program with international colleagues in Calgary.
Dr. Rachael MIlwid talks about her proximity sensing study and network epidemic model.
What a great start to fall 2018! It was an absolutely fantastic experience to attend the first annual International Equine Symposium in Calgary in September 2018. Rachael, Tanya and I each presented different equine projects that we have been conducting in Ontario and the feedback was really fantastic. It was a great way to interact with equine practitioners, researchers and students and wrapped up with an absolutely wonderful evening at Spruce Meadows to watch the 6-bar jumping event. We can’t wait to return next year to share updated results!
Dr. Amy Greer, Dr. Tanya Rossi, and Dr. Rachael Milwid (left to right)
Lead up to the 6-bar jumping event at Spruce Meadows.
Fall is the most wonderful time of year!
Members of the math.epi.lab at the end of the Centre for Public Health and Zoonosis Annual Research Symposium in June 2018. From left to right: Elissa Giang, Dr. Amy Greer, Melanie Cousins, Emma Gardner, Wendy Xie, and Roksolana Hovdey.
With fall comes the start (continuation?) of the academic travel season. Are you wondering where you might find members of the math.epi.lab this fall? We will be presenting our most recent research findings in Canada, the US, and Thailand so we will be "in transit" quite a bit this fall. Be sure to catch up with us if you are planning to attend any of the following conferences and events.
1) 2018 Calgary International Equine Symposium (Sept 2018)
2) Pandemic Influenza Outbreak Research Modelling (Pan-Inform) meeting (Oct 2018)
3) 15th International Symposium of Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics: ISVEE15 (Nov 2018)
4) Conference for Research Workers in Animal Diseases (Dec 2018)
Are you looking for a great group to join as a postdoctoral fellow?
Postdoctoral Fellow - OPEN Stewardship: An Online Platform for Expanding Antimicrobial Stewardship
The successful applicant will be involved in a research program that will apply both qualitative and quantitative methods to the area of veterinary antimicrobial stewardship. The successful applicant will work with a large, international team to develop and assess an open, web-based system that allows for advanced stewardship interventions in the form of feedback and benchmarking as well as sharing of best practice guidelines and patterns of antibiotic resistance (https://www.jpiamr.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/2017-066-Abstract.pdf). The postdoctoral fellow will be specifically focused on research to support veterinary professionals.
Applicants should have significant experience in veterinary medicine, epidemiology, and/or population health. The successful candidate will have excellent English language communication skills (both verbal and written), experience conducting research in a highly interdisciplinary environment, and prior experience writing scientific articles. Strong analytical skills are an asset. Applicants must be within 3 years of having completed their PhD or DVSc in a field that is relevant to the research project (e.g. epidemiology, biology, population medicine). Preference will be given to applicants who also hold a DVM degree and who have experience working with veterinary professionals in a research environment. The initial appointment will be for one year. Extension of the appointment for the second year is possible, but subject to funding availability and satisfactory performance during the first year. The salary will be commensurate with the experience of the candidate in the range of $45,000 to $50,000 CDN (including benefits).
The starting date is August 2018, or as soon as possible thereafter.Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. Incomplete applications will not be considered and only selected applicants will be contacted for an interview.
Application Deadline: June 18, 2018
How to apply:
Applicants must submit a cover letter, curriculum vitae, and a one-page summary of research experience that specifically addresses the applicants interest in veterinary antimicrobial stewardship. Applicants should also submit contact information for at least two individuals who can provide letters of recommendation to:
Dr. Amy Greer
Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Population Disease Modeling, and Assistant Professor
Department of Population Medicine, Ontario Veterinary College
University of Guelph
agreer@uoguelph.ca
www.mathepilab.org
All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority. At the University of Guelph, fostering a culture of inclusion is an institutional imperative. The University invites and encourages applications from all qualified individuals, including from groups that are traditionally underrepresented in employment, who may contribute to further diversification of our Institution.
The most wonderful time of year...CRWAD 2017!
Every year in early December the Veterinary Epidemiology community comes together in Chicago for the Conference for Research Workers in Animal Disease (CRWAD). This year our group contributed three oral presentations (Rachael Milwid, Melanie Cousins, and Kelsey Spence) and one poster presentation (Rachael Milwid) at the conference. I also served as the session moderator for the Modeling and Network Analysis session along with Kristen Davenport from Colorado State. Rachael presented two different projects related to her work on equine contact networks and Melanie presented her work on the development of a mathematical model for Campylobacter in Ontario. Since Kelsey is in the UK, I presented her longitudinal study of equine movement patterns. All of our projects were very well received by the audience and the Department of Population Medicine was well represented with a very large group of attending graduate students.
Melanie giving her oral presentation in the ecology of food-borne pathogens session.
The Magnificent Mile is quite magnificent in December!
CIHR Impact Fellows Retreat
This week Dr. Salah Uddin Khan, Dr. Victoria Ng (Public Health Agency of Canada), and I had the great pleasure of attending the first CIHR Health Systems Impact Fellows Cohort Retreat in Toronto. Salah was awarded this prestigious postdoctoral award in the summer and began his fellowship in collaboration with the National Microbiology Laboratory this fall. The goal of these fellowships is to train PhD graduates in a way that focuses on both research and core competencies (such as project management, leadership, and change management) so that they can progress in their careers as leaders within the Canadian Health System. This was the first cohort retreat and it was a really excellent experience for both the fellows and their academic and organizational sponsors. I met many really interesting fellows who I expect will go on to do great things for the Canadian Healthcare system. One of the really amazing things about the inaugural HSI cohort? 80% of the fellows are women! I am looking forward to the next retreat in spring 2018.
Do you aspire to be a "future veterinarian?"
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!
We are currently recruiting undergraduate students interested in helping out with a large equine research project that will be running from November until the Christmas break 2017. No horse experience is necessary. This is a great opportunity for students interested in a career in veterinary medicine to learn more about veterinary research and get some experience working in a large animal (equine) environment. You will be providing technical and logistical support to the study coordinator, Dr. Tanya Rossi. Please contact Dr. Amy Greer in the Department of Population Medicine to learn more about this opportunity.
Math.Epi.Lab retreat and our first lab meeting of the semester
Over the summer, I have focused my own professional development on productivity and strategic planning within a academic research environment. I was motivated to spend some time thinking abut this after realizing that our research team has grown substantially with upwards of ten members starting this fall. I read this paper in Molecular Cell and felt motivated to put a version of this plan into action this fall as a way to improve our team productivity and communication.
On Friday September 15th, we spent the day working together as a group, discussing tools that we can we can use to make our research time more productive and efficient so that we are better able to balance our research, and teaching responsibilities with our personal lives. We also spent a considerable amount of time working on individual strategic plans for the fall semester. We will meet again in December to evaluate how well we were able to put our strategic plans into action over the course of the semester. Personally, I have found that my semester plan has helped me to prioritize my tasks and I feel much better organized as a result.
This week we also had our first lab meeting led by Emma. We had a great discussion with each person bringing and presenting a paper from the peer-reviewed literature that was important to their development as a scientist. It was a great first lab meeting! At our next lab meeting Rachael is going to teach the group how to work with R markdown.