Sally Blower

Director of Biomedical Modeling Center, Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine

Website: www.semel.ucla.edu/biomedicalmodeling

My research focuses on developing mathematical models of the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases. I use my models as health policy tools, to design epidemic control strategies and to predict the emergence of antibiotic and antiviral drug resistance. The main focus is to find solutions for urgent public health problems in resource-rich and resource-constrained countries. I mainly work on HIV/AIDS, although I have also worked on tuberculosis, trachoma, leprosy, herpes simplex virus, syphilis and community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus. I am currently collaborating with researchers in South Africa and Botswana, as well as in the US, the Netherlands, France and Denmark.

I strongly believe in the internet and open-access publishing in order to achieve scientific outreach both within academia and outside academia. Open-access allows anyone in the world with access to a computer to access scientific research. I am currently serving on the editorial boards of the major journals that are providing open-access: BMC Medicine, BMC Biology, BMC Infectious Diseases, BMC Proceedings, BMC Ecology and BMC Research Notes. These innovative journals are becoming extremely successful and will change the nature of scientific publishing and increase the accessibility of science.