Past members

Ben was a postdoc with a primary interest in investigating pathogen transmission using genomics, as well as developing methodological tools for genomic sequence analysis. After receiving a BSc in Biology from University of Bristol and an MRes in Biosystematics from Imperial College London, Ben received his PhD in Computational Biology from University College London under the supervision of Professor Francois Balloux, studying the genomics and epidemiology of Shigella spp. in Vietnam. He then took up a post doc position with Professor Taane Clark at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine working on TB transmission in Malawi. He moved to Canada for a position at UBC and the BCCDC to work with Dr. James Johnston on TB transmission in BC. He joined the MAGPIE group to work on various projects, mainly focusing on genomic analyses in M. tuberculosis and COVID-19.

Elisha was a postdoctoral researcher  in the MAGPIE group. His research spans  key areas of Mathematical modelling, including epidemiological modelling and analysis, rapid response modelling of emerging infectious diseases such as COVID-19. Before joining SFU, he completed his PhD in Mathematical biology in Stellenbosch University. His PhD thesis focused on using mathematical models to quantify and predict the impact of climate change on tsetse  and trypanosomiasis in Africa. He has five years  undergraduate teaching experience as a faculty member in the mathematics department, Federal University Oye-Ekiti.

Siavash is a computational biologist with a background in mathematical modeling and bacterial physiology/ biochemistry. He worked on developing a new method to estimate epidemiological parameters from a given viral phylogenetic tree during the course of an epidemic. His research focuses on developing computational and mathematical tools to understand and predict biological systems. During his PhD, he worked with Chris Marx and Chris Remien at University of Idaho working on : "Mathematical Modeling and Analysis of Gene Expression to Understand Phenotypic Heterogeneity and the Response of Methylobacterium extorquens to Formaldehyde Toxicity". 

Amy joined the MAPGIE group in Dec 2021 as a postdoctoral fellow to work on transmission modeling for ongoing pandemics. She holds a PhD in Molecular Genetics and Genomics as well as a Masters of Population Health Science from Washington University in St. Louis. Her graduate research focused on predicting the effects of medical interventions on communities of human-associated microbes in global health settings.

Researchgate

Omid was a Ph.D. student in the Mathematics Department. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Applied Mathematics and a master’s degree in Operation Research from the University of Tabriz. Experienced in interdisciplinary works, his research interest lies in linking molecular studies of the pathogen genome to epidemiological information. He designed an app for Covid-19 simulation.

Niloufar was a Ph.D. student in the Mathematics Department and a member of INS (Individualized Interdisciplinary Studies) Program at SFU. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Applied Mathematics and a master’s degree in Computer Science. During her master’s, she was a member of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Lab at University of Tehran, Iran, working on imputation methods on sparse single-cell data and constructing Phylogenetic Trees on tumor data. She is interested in Constructing and Inferring Phylogenetic Networks from binary trees and ordination in reduced space (or dimension reduction techniques) for biodiversity measures.

Kurnia was a PhD student in the Department of Mathematics enrolled in the Applied Mathematics program. Her research interest is in statistical methods to understand infectious disease outbreaks using genomic data. She worked to understand cluster outbreaks using logistic regression.

Jessica was an MSc Student in Applied Mathematics working under the supervision of Paul Tupper. They used their skills and modelling techniques to explore a variety of interesting questions.

Saba was an MSc student of Applied Mathematics at Simon Fraser University. She and her supervisor Paul Tupper worked on a model that explains and simulates spread of Covid-19 infection in indoor spaces like on a plane, a bus, or in a restaurant. Their goal was to find a suitable model and model parameters looking at existing data for the outbreak. Saba’s undergraduate degree was in Electrical Engineering, sub-major in Control Systems. She volunteered in the Cognitive Science Lab, University of Tehran for two years through which she also got interested in human behaviour and cognitive science. Her bachelor’s project was about designing a cognitive game for data collection and investigating how people share their information in different economic situations.

Piyush was an MSc student in applied mathematics working under Dr. Cedric Chauve and Dr. Caroline Colijn. He intends to use his skills in mathematics and computer programming to extract insights from biological data, at the same time widening his knowledge regarding the different domains of bio-math.

Inayat was a fourth-year Data Science undergraduate student at Simon Fraser University. She had a number of administrative roles as the Lab Manager for the MAGPIE Research Group. 

Golrokh was an undergraduate student in the Mathematics and Computing Science program at SFU. She was interested in the mathematical applications in neuroscience and pharmacology. She worked under the supervision of Paul Tupper on a USRA project modelling drug tolerance and finding optimal treatment plans.

Cody Zhang was a Computer Science student at BCIT. He has broad interests in using algorithms to solve relevant real-world problems. Cody worked as a Junior Software Developer at SFU on a co-op term. His project with the MAGPIE team revolved around modelling and creating a Covid Outbreak Simulation, in collaboration with Caroline Colijn and Jessica Stockdale. Cody previously completed a B.Sc in Chemistry from UBC and briefly worked in the fuel cells and renewable energy industry.

Vibhuti was a Data Science major at SFU. He worked under Dr. Caroline Colin and Dr. Jessica Stockdale as a research assistant on COVID-19 wave modelling. He was interested in exploring how programming and statistical methods can be utilized in the fields of biology and epidemiology.