The HARMONIZE lead member for Colombia, Mauricio Santos Vega, based at the Universidad de los Andes (UniAndes), has been appointed as a Regular Associate at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy. The ICTP is an institution that furthers scientific expertise in the developing world by fostering academic research in the sciences as well as enhancing international collaboration and engagement.

Mauricio’s research will focus on synthesising statistical and mathematical models to better understand the complex interactions between the climate, environment, socioeconomic factors, human mobility and intrinsic dynamics of vector-borne diseases. Models will be designed to directly inform decision-making in mitigating disease risk, given different public health risk scenarios.

The specific aims of this research are to:

• understand how extrinsic environmental drivers (e.g., climate and land-use change) interact with socioeconomic drivers (e.g., social inequalities, international trade and human mobility) and intrinsic disease dynamics (e.g., population immunity) in determining disease dynamics;
• develop novel predictive modelling tools to increase resilience in vector-borne disease risk, given scenarios of co-circulation of multiple diseases and disease introduction and expansion into new areas; and
• evaluate the efficacy of developed models in supporting decision-makers in mitigating the risk of disease epidemics and emergence.

The tools being developed under HARMONIZE to gather, process and harmonise data, as well as new longitudinal data collection, will support Mauricio in undertaking his research at the ICTP.