16-03-2020
Fabio Chalub, President of the Department of Mathematics at NOVA School of Science and Technology and one of the eight commissioners for the first official celebration of International Mathematics Day, had the opportunity to explain to the Diário de Notícias newspaper the importance of this celebrations. Aware of the situation we are all experiencing at the moment, he spoke about one of the classic areas of mathematics, epidemiology.
“R0 has been published in many newspapers, which, roughly speaking, is the number of secondary infections that a primary infected generates, assuming that no one benefits from immunity in the population. This concept was invented by a mathematical doctor who was trying to develop a model for the study of malaria in India, ”, the professor explained to DN. "The moment a vaccine exists for covid-19, the vaccination strategy will essentially be a mathematical question: how many people do we have to vaccinate and where do we have to do it", he added.
Although official celebrations around the world were canceled due to the demands of the current situation, NOVA School of Science and Technology did not fail to mark the day using its online platforms.
Read the full interview here ( in Portuguese).
