Hello everyone, Thank you to everyone who turned up to the talk last week, once again Ivan gave a very interesting talk on a rather well-known topic (BTW the princess problem was awesome, if you weren’t there and want to know what it is, ask Ivan). Like I said last week, we will be returning to the usual starting times that we had in Semester 1. This week we have a special guest from a far away land (UNSW). Although, I should point out that our speaker Alex did his honours at Sydney Uni so he may be familiar to a couple of you older dudes. Anyway he will be talking about modelling HIV in Australia (an applied topic for once!), and like the nice person that he is, he has sent me an abstract: Mathematical models are playing an increasing role in informing governments on public health issues. The National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research (NCHECR) was initially set up to fight the growing problem of HIV in the 1980s, but has since evolved to look at other STIs and provides input on government health policy. One of the tools used by NCHECR is mathematical modelling, and one of the most recent applications of modelling was to investigate the recent observed increases in HIV. We used a novel ODE based model to investigate possible causes for this increase, and we incorporated the latest epidemiological, clinical, behavioural, and biological data into the model. What we found was surprising and based on our results the health departments around Australia are taking steps toward thwarting this new resurgence in HIV. Don’t be scared by the complex-sounding abstract, I know Alex in real life and he is really quite a simple fellow......... Topic: Modelling HIV in Australia Speaker: Alex Hoare Location: Carslaw 451 Date/Time: Friday August 8, 1-2pm Hope to see you there! Gareth "For every fatal shooting, there were roughly three non-fatal shootings. And, folks, this is unacceptable in America. It’s just unacceptable. And we’re going to do something about it." - George W. Bush