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Lauren Meyers

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Lauren Meyers
CitizenshipAmerican
EducationHarvard University (BS)
Stanford University (PhD)
Scientific career
FieldsBiology
InstitutionsUniversity of Texas at Austin
Doctoral advisorMarcus W. Feldman[1]

Lauren Ancel Meyers is an American integrative biologist who holds the Denton A. Cooley Centennial Professorship in Zoology at the University of Texas at Austin.[2] She is also a member of the Santa Fe Institute External Faculty.[3]

Career

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Meyers earned her Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude, in mathematics and philosophy at Harvard University (1996) and her PhD in biological sciences at Stanford University (2000).[1] She then did post-doctoral work with the National Science Foundation for two years.[2]

Meyers specializes in network epidemiology and works in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other agencies on diseases such as COVID-19, pandemic influenza, Ebola, HIV, Swine flu,[4] and Zika.[3] When the COVID-19 pandemic appeared she quickly realized it presented a unique danger and had long feared about such a pandemic. Her team formed the COVID-19 Modeling Consortium and coordinates with the White House Coronavirus Task Force.[5][6] Meyers and other epidemiologists knew that the 2009 swine flu pandemic could have been much worse and that much better preparations for a future pandemic were needed. She is concerned that people will not take necessary precautions for the COVID-19 pandemic.[4] Her team discovered that every day of delay in implementing social distancing measures added 2.4 days to the length of an outbreak.[7] On 30 June 2020, she predicted that without major and quick behavior change at least some locales will require a Stage 5 (red) shutdown.[8] Meyers emphasizes that COVID-19 does spread silently.[9][10] Meyers further states that trait of COVID-19, coupled with its rapid transmission interval, only an average of 4 days, makes COVID-19 very dangerous. By comparison, this is very different from SARS, which has an 8-day transmission interval and is more visible.[9][11]

Academic positions

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  • Director, University of Texas at Austin (UT) COVID-19 Modeling Consortium (2020-)[1][2]
  • Professor, Department of Integrative Biology and Department of Statistics & Data Science, UT (2011-)[1]
  • Founding Chair, Department of Statistics & Data Science, UT (2011-2014)[1]
  • Associate Professor, Integrative Biology, UT(2007-2011)[1]
  • Associate Director, Division of Statistics and Scientific Computation, UT (2008-2010)[1]
  • Assistant Professor, Integrative Biology, UT (2003-2007)[1]
  • External Faculty, Santa Fe Institute (SFI), Santa Fe, New Mexico (2003- )[1]
  • NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at Emory University (Advisor: Bruce Levin) and SFI (2000-2002)[1]

Honors and awards

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  • Denton A. Cooley Centennial Professorship, UT (2018- )[1]
  • Joseph Lieberman Award for Significant Contributions to Science (2017)[1]
  • William H. and Gladys G. Reeder Faculty Fellow, UT (2011-2013, 2016–2018)[1]
  • Fellow, University of Texas Institute for Molecular and Cellular Biology (2006-2010, 2014–2015)[1]
  • Center for Excellence in Education - Excellence and Achievement Award (2013)[1]
  • Donald D. Harrington Faculty Fellowship, UT (2010-2011)[1]
  • College of Natural Sciences Teaching Excellence Award, UT (2005)[1]
  • MIT Technology Review TR100: One of 100 Top Global Innovators Under 35 (2004)[1]
  • National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biological Informatics (2000-2002)[1]
  • Santa Fe Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship (2000-2002)[1]
  • Samuel Karlin Prize for Ph.D. Thesis in Mathematical Biology (2000)[1]
  • Steinmetz Fellowship, Santa Fe Institute (1999)[1]
  • National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate Fellowship (1996-1999)[1]
  • U.S. Congressional National Science Scholar (1991-1995)[1]

Education

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  • National Science Foundation|National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, Emory University and Santa Fe Institute, 2000-2002[2]
  • Stanford University, PhD, 1996-2000[1]
  • Harvard University, BA, 1991-1996[1]

Selected publications

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  • Lauren Ancel Meyers; Babak Pourbohloul; M E J Newman; Danuta M Skowronski; Robert C Brunham (1 January 2005). "Network theory and SARS: predicting outbreak diversity". Journal of Theoretical Biology. 232 (1): 71–81. doi:10.1016/J.JTBI.2004.07.026. ISSN 0022-5193. PMC 7094100. PMID 15498863. Zbl 1442.92174. Wikidata Q39698246.
  • J. Arjan G M. de Visser; Joachim Hermisson; Günter P. Wagner; et al. (1 September 2003). "Perspective: Evolution and detection of genetic robustness". Evolution. 57 (9): 1959–1972. doi:10.1111/J.0014-3820.2003.TB00377.X. ISSN 0014-3820. PMID 14575319. Wikidata Q34271971.
  • Shweta Bansal; Bryan T Grenfell; Lauren Ancel Meyers (22 October 2007). "When individual behaviour matters: homogeneous and network models in epidemiology". Journal of the Royal Society Interface. 4 (16): 879–91. doi:10.1098/RSIF.2007.1100. ISSN 1742-5689. PMC 2394553. PMID 17640863. Wikidata Q28754461.

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z "Lauren Ancel Meyers" (PDF). University of Texas. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d "Lauren Ancel Meyers". University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
  3. ^ a b "Lauren Ancel Meyers". University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
  4. ^ a b Heid, Jason (12 June 2020). "How a Texas Expert on Swine Flu Had to Change Her Game". Texas Monthly. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
  5. ^ Cone, Tonyia (27 May 2020). "COVID-19 in Context: Epidemiologist and Community Member Dr. Lauren Ancel Meyers Predicts and Guides Coronavirus Decision Making". The Jewish Outlook. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
  6. ^ Korte, Lara (24 April 2020). "Coronavirus in Texas: UT's top epidemiologist has been preparing for this fight for decades". The Statesman. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
  7. ^ "For Each Day's Delay in Social Distancing, a COVID-19 Outbreak Lasts Days Longer". University of Texas News. 1 June 2020. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
  8. ^ Thornton, Ryan (30 June 2020). "Without rapid behavior change, city heads for stage 5 shutdown". Austin Monitor. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
  9. ^ a b "Coronavirus Spreads Quickly and Sometimes Before People Have Symptoms, Study Finds". University of Texas News. 16 March 2020. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
  10. ^ Freer, Emma (10 June 2020). "COVID-19 'can and does spread silently' says UT's Lauren Ancel Meyers as Austin sees daily cases spike again". Austonia. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
  11. ^ Meyers, Lauren (20 March 2020). "The secret life of coronavirus: Why we need such drastic social distancing measures". Economics Intelligence Unit. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
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