My activities focus on three areas: research, teaching and instigating the synergistic activities associated with MTBI / SUMS and SUMS - MSHP through a series of local, regional, national and international activities.

My research is driven by the role of social landscapes on pathogens’ disease evolution. I have carried out joint work on: Influenza (cross-immunity); HIV (impact of behavior, long periods of infectiousness, variable infectivity, co-infections, prostitution, social networks, vaccine efficacy and parameter estimation); TB (impact of exogenous reinfection, variable progression rates, vaccination, public transportation, generalized households); foot and mouth disease (Uruguay); Chagas disease (control) as well as on emergent or re-emergent diseases like SARS, Ebola, Dengue and the West Nile Virus. My research has also focused on problems at the interface of homeland security and disease invasions (natural or deliberate) and social processes. Current research includes work on the role of peer pressure on various social processes (collaborative learning, ecstasy use, “drinkink”, etc.) and on the role of epidemiological modeling approaches and methods in the study of the deliberate release of biological agents (smallpox) as well as on the dynamics of social organizations (fanatic ideologies, spread of information and rumors).

The content of the courses that I have taught or developed focus on three aspects associated with biological and social processes: modeling, mathematical methods and simulations. The material taught is motivated via applications to immunology, epidemiology, ecology and evolutionary biology, demography and social dynamics.

MTBI/SUMS (Mathematical and Theoretical Biology Institute / Institute for Strengthening the Understanding of Mathematics and Science) provide sequential research experiences, mostly to underrepresented minorities, at the undergraduate and graduate levels, in the field of applied mathematics and its applications to the biological and social sciences. MTBI / SUMS provides research mentorship training to faculty who want to work at the interface of applied mathematics and theoretical and computational biology and have no prior experience in these fields. Since 1996, MTBI / SUMS alumni have co-authored 111 technical reports. Some of these reports have been published or become the basis of the research efforts of MTBI / SUMS associated faculty (adjunct and visiting professors from across the USA and other nations), postdoctoral and graduate students, visitors and me. MTBI / SUMS have mentored 277 students through the 2006 institute. Of these alumni, 178 students have continued on to graduate school, of which 112 are from underrepresented US minorities.

SUMS - MSHP (Mathematics Science Honors Program) mission focuses on increasing the representation of US citizens and residents in fields that required strong quantitative training. SUMS - MSHP has trained 2095 high school Arizona students from economically disadvantage backgrounds via an intense mathematics summer experience over the past 20 years. Its mission is expanding to include similar experiences to community college students from the Phoenix area as well as year long mathematical mentorship and support activities for undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students at ASU through its partnership with MTBI / SUMS.

As Executive Director of MTBI / SUMS and SUMS - MSHP, I expect to increase the links of ASU’s pipeline program (high school, college, graduate school and postdoctoral level) in order to enhance the level of participation and opportunities of US students, particularly those who are members of underrepresented US minorities in the mathematical sciences or in fields that demand strong background in quantitative methodology.