staff
Alex Welte - alexwelte@sun.ac.za
Alex became director of SACEMA in July of 2010, taking over from John Hargrove.
Previously, Alex was in the School of Computational and Applied Mathematics at the University of the Witwatersrand, and has been involved with SACEMA projects since the beginning of the centre's existence. A physicist by training, he is interested in a diverse range of projects involving the mathematical modeling of biological, chemical and population-dynamic processes.
The biggest single issue that has Alex has been engaged with over the last few years is the challenge of defining, and then applying in the field, laboratory based characterizations of 'recent infection'. This idea, and the SACEMA group's work in this area, has attracted a lot of interest in recent years as it offers tremendous potential to improve epidemiological surveillance. Tools arising out of this work are available for download on the SACEMA site.
Brian Williams - BrianGerardWilliams@gmail.com
Prof Brian Williams has recently been appointed the Chair of SACEMA's Board of Trustees. Brian is currently employed by the World Health Organisation and has a wealth of experience in researching HIV and TB issues. He has been involved with SACEMA from its inception and we look forward to his input over coming years.
John Hargrove - jhargrove@sun.ac.za
John was appointed as SACEMA director in early 2006 and remained director until June 2010, when he handed over stewardship of SACEMA to incoming director Alex Welte. John worked for more than 30 years in the field of tsetse fly biology and control, applying mathematical analytical and modelling techniques in the field of physiology, behaviour and population dynamics.
Lynnemore Scheepers - scheepersl@sun.ac.za
Lynnemore Scheepers is the Research Manager for SACEMA. Prior to joining SACEMA, she worked for several years in research management at UCT and recently CPUT.
Hayden Eastwood - hayden.eastwood@gmail.com
Hayden has come across from the field of theoretical biophysics. His main interest is in algorithms that learn information from real life systems, and in using models of such information to predict future scenarios. He works on improving HIV incidence estimation with the BED technique and on generating models that explore HIV infection dynamics in a variety of settings.
He is also responsible for web development and has been in charge of rebuilding the SACEMA content management system from the bottom up using cakePHP and Croogo.
Natalie Roman - nroman@sun.ac.za
Natalie Roman joined SACEMA in June 2009 in an administrative capacity, being seated at reception. She has several years of work experience in financial administration.
Rachid Ouifki - ouifkir@sun.ac.za
Dr Ouifki has a PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Cadi Ayyad, Marrakesh. He has taught biostatistics at the University of Paris and completed a two-year postdoc at SACEMA. His field of interest is stability analysis and bifurcation of ordinary and delayed differential equations. He is currently appointed as a Research Fellow at SACEMA, and is working on Mathematical modelling and analysis of HIV/AIDS dynamics and HIV-TB interactions.
Pieter Uys - pieter@edserve.co.za
Pieter Uys has joined SACEMA part-time to do some modelling on the effects of delays in the diagnosis of tuberculosis in a high prevalence region. A paper on this is due for publication shortly. He is also busy on complimentary work doing a detailed investigation of the contributions to the overall time delay that results from individual logistic and administrative stages in arriving at a diagnosis.
Wim Delva - wim.delva@ugent.be
A medical doctor and epidemiologist, Wim Delva has a joint research appointment at SACEMA and the International Centre for Reproductive Health at Ghent University in Belgium. He is interested in the application of the statistical, epidemiological and mathematical modelling techniques to describe and analyse the behavioural and biological processes underlying generalised HIV epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa. His current research centres around the role of age disparate relationships, concurrency and oscillating migration in the spread of HIV in Southern Africa, and the potential impact of early HIV treatment and concurrency reduction on the prevalence and incidence of HIV.
Guy Severin Mahiane - sgmahiane@sun.ac.za
Guy is a postdoc from Cameroon. He graduated in mathematics at the University of Yaounde 1 and then did a PhD in biostatistics at the University of Paris.
His current research interests include developing statistical tools to study the effects of interventions on HIV incidence among young people, as well as modelling HIV incidence from prevalence data and AIDS related mortality.
Roger Mateer - rogermateer@gmail.com
Roger has a BSc in Computer Science and Pure Mathematics, and BSc(Hons) in Computer Science from the University of the Witwatersrand. He is a software developer, having been involved in the past in developing several systems and models for SACEMA relating to the biology and epidemiology of HIV. He currently serves at SACEMA in a general and technical support role, including, but not limited to, maintenance and development of the website.
