Modelling: from fertilization and embryogenesis to disease transmission

Speaker:
Katerina Kaouri (Cardiff University)
When:
14/3/2023, 4pm
Biosciences E102
Hybrid option available
Bio:
Katerina is a Senior Lecturer in Applied Mathematics at Cardiff University. She is also the Director for Impact and Engagement at the Cardiff School of Maths. She holds a DPhil in Applied Mathematics from Oxford University. Katerina has been working on a range of interdisciplinary challenges mainly stemming from biology and medicine, in collaboration with businesses and society. She has been involved in several public engagement activities such as the SciShops.eu project where 18 organisations in 12 EU countries tackled pressing societal challenges. She is also the founder and coordinator of the CY Study Groups with Industry, modelling workshops that are part of the European Study Groups with Industry series. She co-founded the non-profit SciCo Cyprus and the Mediterranean Science Festival and she is a TEDx Speaker and a TED-Ed educator. During the pandemic she led a team working on COVID-19 modelling, in collaboration with Oxford, and participated in the Technical Advisory Group of the Welsh government.
Summary:
I will present an overview of various interdisciplinary challenges I have been working on, in collaboration with experimentalists and industry. I will start with models of calcium signalling in In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and embryogenesis. I will then proceed to the important societal challenge of improving pregnancy rates in IVF. Lastly, I will relay our work on modelling viral transmission in indoor spaces, while we are moving from the pandemic into the future.