ECDC on air.

The podcast of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

Keeping up to date with European epidemiology.

Hello, welcome and thanks for tuning in to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control

audio series, ECDC, on air.

I'm your host Lee, recording from our headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden.

On today's episode, we will be discussing mathematical modelling at ECDC,

particularly how it works, what it involves, and how it can impact public health.

If you're like myself and don't consider yourself a mathematician, don't worry.

René Niehus, one of ECDC's experts in modeling, is here to help shed light on the subject.

So we're here with René Niehus, an expert in mathematical modeling here at ECDC.

René, welcome. Thanks for joining us.

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

So firstly, what is your background and how long have you been here at ECDC?

Right. So I came to ECDC about a year ago. So speaking pandemic terms, that was roughly around when Delta took over as a variant. And I came here as a

mathematical modeler. And I was a mathematical modeler before working at different universities and

working on different topics, really. I was in Boston at the Harvard School

of Public Health, working both on COVID and on the gut microbiome. Before that, I was living in

New York City and I worked at the Memorial Sloan Cattering. Also focusing on gut microbiome

questions. Prior to that, I lived in Southeast Asia, doing

mathematical modeling work in Laos. And there the questions were very much focused on public

health questions around antimicrobial resistance and the questions of how antimicrobial

...