Prof Mick Roberts staff profile picture

Contact details +6492136589

Prof Mick Roberts BSc, MSc, PhD, IMA, RSNZ

Professor

Doctoral Supervisor
New Zealand Institute for Advanced Study

Professor in Mathematical Biology

More about me...View less...

Professional

Qualifications

  • Bachelor of Science - University of Bristol (1971)
  • Master of Science - Cranfield Institute of Technology (1975)
  • Doctor of Philosophy - Victoria University (1979)

Fellowships and Memberships

  • Member, Institute of Mathematics and its Applications. (Fellow) (1992)
  • Member, Royal Society of New Zealand (Fellow) (2008)

Certifications and Registrations

  • Licence, Supervisor, Massey University

Research Expertise

Research Interests

To understand the epidemiology of infectious diseases and optimise strategies for their control, using modern methods of mathematical analysis and developing new methods as necessary.

Thematics

Health and Well-being

Area of Expertise

Field of research codes
Applied Mathematics (010200): Biological Mathematics (010202): Dynamical Systems in Applications (010204): Mathematical Sciences (010000)

Research Projects

Current Projects

Project Title: The dynamics of interacting infections

Date Range: 2021 - 2024

Funding Body: Royal Society of New Zealand

Project Team:

Completed Projects

Project Title: Biodiversity and the ecology of emerging infectious diseases

Date Range: 2018 - 2022

Funding Body: Royal Society of New Zealand

Project Team:

Project Title: Is the family pet a risk factor of multidrug resistant bacterial infections?

Date Range: 2014 - 2019

Funding Body: Health Research Council of New Zealand

Project Team:

Project Title: Predicting the epidemic curve

We aim to improve predictions of the shape of an epidemic curve, and of the proportion of a population infected in an outbreak of a novel infectious disease, by analysing how the contact structure of a host population determines the transmission of infection.
Read Project Description Hide Project Description

Date Range: 2012 - 2015

Funding Body: Marsden Fund - Full

Project Team:

Project Title: Modelling a virus

Viruses are a major cause of mortality in animals and humans. Viruses multiply and evolve within their hosts. A virus is in conflict with its host's immune system, and evolutionary `drift' can help it to evade the immune response. The host provides the environment for the virus, and transmission of a virus to a new host, even one of the same species, introduces it to a new environment and new selection pressures. The host's immune system `remembers' the viruses it has previously encountered, and can adapt somewhat to similar viruses. Recombination, usually where different host species are involved, can result in a `shift' and the emergence of a novel virus causing a pandemic. Mathematical models will describe the within-host evolution and between-host transmission of a virus. Thought experiments carried out on the models will reveal how the virus's characteristics and the hosts' immune systems determine how viruses spread. The models will be used to investigate how complicating factors, including the genetic differences between individual hosts, the geographical distribution of host populations, and the seasonal nature of epidemics influence how viruses evolve. The results obtained from the models will be compared with known patterns of transmission, particularly of HIV and influenza.
Read Project Description Hide Project Description

Date Range: 2009 - 2012

Funding Body: Marsden Fund - Full

Project Team:

Teaching and Supervision

Contact Supervisor

Current Doctoral Supervision

Main Supervisor of:

  • Jason Archer - Doctor of Philosophy
    The Ecology of Emerging Infectious Diseases

Completed Doctoral Supervision

Main Supervisor of:

  • 2018 - Andrea Babylon - Doctor of Philosophy
    Modelling Infectious Diseases in Multiple Species
  • 2017 - Karen McCulloch - Doctor of Philosophy
    An Analytical Approach to Modelling Epidemics on Networks

Co-supervisor of:

  • 2019 - Syed Zaidi - Doctor of Philosophy
    IS OUR BREATHING OPTIMAL?
  • 2008 - Amanda Elvin - Doctor of Philosophy
    Pattern formation in a neural field model