Prof M Luczak
Applications accepted all year round
About the Project
The School of Mathematical Sciences of Queen Mary University of London invite applications for a PhD project commencing either in January 2017 or September 2017 for students seeking funding, or at any point in the academic year for self-funded students.
This project will be supervised by Professor Malwina Luczak and Dr Jamie Griffin.
In an SIR epidemic model, an infectious disease spreads through a population where each individual is either susceptible, infective or recovered. The population is represented by a network (graph) of contacts, where the vertices correspond to individuals and the edges correspond to potential infectious contacts. Different individuals have different patterns of activity, leading to different numbers of contacts. The degree of a vertex is the number of contacts of the corresponding individual. The basic reproductive ratio is the key quantity for such a model, calculated from the model parameters such as the transmission rate, recovery rate, and the average number of contacts of an individual. It is the average number of secondary cases resulting from one case of a disease and determines the speed of epidemic progression in the early stages.
The exact parameters of this project will be discussed in consultation with the supervisor.
The application procedure is described on the School website. For further enquiries please contact Prof. Malwina Luczak ([Email Address Removed]). This project is eligible for full funding, including support for 3.5 years’ study, additional funds for conference and research visits and funding for relevant IT needs. Applicants interested in the full funding will have to participate in a highly competitive selection process. The best candidates will be eligible to receive a prestigious Ian Macdonald Postgraduate Award of £1000, for which you will be considered alongside your application. The application deadline for full funding is November 30th 2016 to start in January 2017, and January 31st to start in September 2017.
Funding Notes
There is also 50% funding scheme available for students who are able to find the matching 50 % of the cost of their studies. Competition for these half-funded slots will be less intensive, and eligible students should mention their willingness to be considered for them in their application. The application deadline for 50 % funding is January 31st 2017.
This project can be also undertaken as a self-funded project, either through your own funds or through a body external to Queen Mary University of London. Self-funded applications are accepted year-round.
References
[JLW2015] S. Janson, M. Luczak and P. Windridge. Critical SIR epidemic on a random graph with given degrees. Preprint