Dr. Zengwang Xu

Dr. Zengwang Xu, Geography, has been awarded 2013-14 Research Growth Initiative funding for “Modeling the Diffusion and Intervention of H5N1 in a Realistically Connected Population in Milwaukee City: A Social Spatial Network Approach”. RGI is “an internal seed-funding competition aimed at enhancing the university’s research and scholarly work, and supporting the state’s economic development through innovation.”

This project studies the diffusion and intervention of the influenza flu virus (H5N1) in a socially and spatially connected population in the city of Milwaukee. We connect the diverse population in the city of Milwaukee as a dynamic social and spatial network through transportation modeling, and investigate how the H5N1 would diffuse in the city that is composed of population of different social, economic, and demographic statuses, and how the different cohorts affect and are affected by the epidemic diffusion and the effective spatially heterogeneous intervention strategies. It aims to study the epidemic diffusion and intervention in an intracity population modeled with high realism and investigate: (1) social and demographic effects on diffusion of directly transmitted infectious diseases; (2) effective spatially heterogeneous intervention strategies; and (3) simpler household demographic model for intercity epidemic diffusion.