Biomathematics and Statistics

The "Biomathematics and Statistics Group" at CMAF-CIO, Lisbon University, works with methods from nonlinear dynamics, bifurcation analysis, stochastic processes, bio-statistics and financial statistics. Our research focusses as well on developing theoretical methods as on practical applications, covering research topics in population dynamics, eco-epidemiology, epidemiology of infectious diseases, molecular and antigenic evolution, public health management, economic systems and investigates methodical topics in the natural sciences and mathematics, like large fluctuations and strongly correlated systems (BHP distributions, after Bramwell, Holdsworth, Pinton).

The group also studies and develops research in statistical methods, mainly in the fields of linear and generalized linear models, time series analysis, spatial statistics and multivariate data analysis, in view of its application to environmental, earth, biological and health sciences. More recently, the group has focused its research also in other statistical methods, more specifically, linear and logistic regression, applied to econometrics and marketing research.

The Biomathematics & Statistics Group at CMAF-CIO develops interdisciplinary research networks in international projects, where mathematical models of infectious diseases are parametrized with epidemiological data to be used by public health authorities as a tool to understand and predict the transmission of the disease and develop and evaluate

the introduction of intervention strategies, including vector control and vaccination.

The Biomathematics & Statistics group has solid scientific collaborations with groups working on areas of theoretical biology, public health, epidemiology, and ecology for example, in different parts of the world (e.g. The Netherlands, France, England, United States, Brazil, and recently in Thailand), opening possibility for more interaction and interdisciplinarity.

Further, the group is involved in private industry projects, either via large consortia in EU projects or directly with companies.

Some members of the group are collaborating with the Health Insurance Company Multicare in a research Project which aims to study the possibility of new types of insurance, especially, related to heart and cancer diseases. This project includes epidemiological studies and pricing projections.

A PhD student is jointly financed by FCT and the private company.

Our team is highly interdisciplinary, currently consisting of 12 researchers, including 3 post-doctorates and 4 PhD students from fields like mathematics, biology, theoretical and statistical physics, and statistics.

Presently, the team is participating in 2 EU-projects under FP 7, EPIWORK (http://www.epiwork.eu/) and DENFREE (http://www.denfree.eu/), where the PI of our group is the Work Package (WP) leader in DENFREE).

Small and Medium size companies are part of both consortia.

Other nationally financed projects (FCT) are on their way, as well as the organization of a yearly international workshop (DSABNS2010:http://ptmat.fc.ul.pt/~dsabn2010/, DSABNS2011:http://ptmat.fc.ul.pt/~dsabns2/, DSABNS2012:http://cmaf.ptmat.fc.ul.pt/~dsabns3/, DSABNS2013:http://ptmat.fc.ul.pt/dsabns2013/index.html, and in planning DSABNS2014:http://ptmat.ptmat.fc.ul.pt/dsabns2014/) and several special sessions on biomathematics at international conferences. The group participates and organizes also management meetings of national and international projects.

The dissemination of the results of our work is vast, with regularly seminar presentations for international scientific audiences. Our team has a large record of scientific articles published in international applied mathematical journals, and several publications as book chapters and refereed conference proceedings with international circulation, as well as giving invited and plenary talks at international conferences.

Uptaded information at: http://biomath.fc.ul.pt/