A short talk by Joshua Weitz at the IDEaS Short Talks and Networking Social

When we think about viruses, we tend to think of those that infect humans, such as the causative agents of influenza, HIV, and Ebola. Yet, vastly more viruses infect single-celled microbes.

Diverse and abundant, microbes and the viruses that infect them are found in oceans, lakes, plants, soil, and animal-associated microbiomes. Viruses of microbes play critical roles in reshaping microbial communities, driving ecosystem functioning, and modifying human health.

In this talk, School of Biological Sciences Professor Joshua Weitz will discuss data-driven challenges in investigating this ubiquitous "microscopic" form of disease.

Refreshments and a networking social, at 3-4 PM, follow the short talks.

About the Speaker
Joshua Weitz is Professor of Biological Sciences, Courtesy Professor of Physics and ECE, and Founding Director of the Quantitative Biosciences Ph.D. at Georgia Tech. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from MIT and his A.B. in Physics from Princeton University.

Weitz directs a multidisciplinary research group whose primary mission is to understand how viruses transform human and environmental health. He has written an award-winning book, "Quantitative Viral Ecology," and more than 90 peer-reviewed articles on topics including viral ecology, infectious disease dynamics, and the structure of complex networks.

Weitz is a AAAS Fellow and a Simons Foundation Investigator. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, DARPA, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the Army Research Office, and the Simons Foundation.

About the IDEaS Short Talks Series
The Institute for Data Engineering and Science (IDEaS) is running a series of short talks to learn about research across the Georgia Tech campus. The presentations are about broadly different topics and are intended to be accessible to those in other research areas.