Categories
Seminar

CSS Seminar/Agent-based Modeling and Public Health: Progress and Potential

Date:  Friday, February 7, 2014
Time:  3:00pm
Location:  Center for Social Complexity, 3rd floor Research Hall
Presenter:

Ross Hammond is a senior fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution, where he is director of the Center on Social Dynamics and Policy. His primary area of expertise is modeling complex dynamics in economic, social, and public health systems using mathematical and computational methods from complexity systems science. His current research topics include obesity etiology and prevention, food systems, tobacco control, behavioral epidemiology, crime, corruption, segregation, trust, and decision-making.
Ross Hammond is a senior fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution, where he is director of the Center on Social Dynamics and Policy. His primary area of expertise is modeling complex dynamics in economic, social, and public health systems using mathematical and computational methods from complexity systems science. His current research topics include obesity etiology and prevention, food systems, tobacco control, behavioral epidemiology, crime, corruption, segregation, trust, and decision-making.

The talk will be followed by a Q&A session along with light refreshments.

Abstract: Complex social dynamics drive our social and public health systems, and understanding these dynamics can be critical for designing effective public policies. Advanced computational modeling such as agent-based modeling (ABM) is increasingly used to understand multi-level determinants of complex public health challenges and to design effective responses (including early application in infectious disease and new work in obesity, tobacco control, and widening health disparities). This presentation will include an overview of several recent NIH-funded research studies, including work from three national research networks–National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR), Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study (MIDAS), and Network on Inequality, Complexity, and Health—in which the presenter participates.