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Executive Director
Carlos Castillo-Chavez
University Regents Professor and Joaquin Bustoz Jr.
Professor of Mathematical Biology
Executive Director of MTBI/SUMS
Email: chavez@math.asu.edu
Office: PSA 521
Phone: (480) 965 - 2115
Webpage: http://math.asu.edu/~chavez
Carlos Castillo-Chavez (http://math.asu.edu/~chavez/) is a University Regents and a Joaquin Bustoz Jr. Professor at Arizona State University. Dr. Castillo-Chavez's research program is carried out at the interface of the natural and social sciences. His research program puts emphasis on the role of dynamic social landscapes on disease evolution. In this context, in collaboration with various researchers (graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and faculty elsewhere), joint work is conducted on the role of cross- immunity on the evolution and dynamics of influenza; the impact of behavioral changes, long periods of infectiousness, variable infectivity, co-infections, prostitution, social networks and vaccine efficacy on HIV dynamics; the role of exogenous re- infection, variable progression rates, vaccination, public transportation, close and casual contacts (generalized households) on tuberculosis dynamics and control; the impact of life-history vector dynamics on dengue epidemics; and on the identification of time response scales for epidemics like foot and mouth disease (Uruguay). Dr. Castillo-Chavez and collaborators have worked on the role of dispersal and disease as enhancing mechanisms of ecological diversity. Most recently, research efforts focus on problems at the interface of homeland security and disease invasions (natural or deliberate) and on models for the spread of social "diseases" like alcoholism and ecstasy. Work on models for the spread of extreme ideologies and their impact on cultural norms is also an area where his group conducts active research.
Dr. Castillo-Chavez spent 18 years at Cornell University (1985-2003) where he held joint professorships in the departments of Biological Statistics and Computational Biology (BSCB) and Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (TAM). Dr. Castillo-Chavez has received various awards including two White House Awards (1992 and 1997), the 2002 SACNAS (Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science) Distinguished Scientist Award and the Richard Tapia Award (2003). In 2003, he held the position of Ulam Scholar at the Center for Nonlinear Studies at Los Alamos National Laboratory. In 2004, he was named honorary professor at Xi'an Jiaotong University in China. He has co-authored over one hundred and fifty publications and edited or co-authored seven books. His edited volume (with Tom Banks) on the use of mathematical models in homeland security was published in SIAM's Frontiers in Applied Mathematics (2003) (http://www.ec-securehost.com/SIAM/FR28.html#FR28). Dr. Castillo-Chavez's recent work as a co-editor on the 2007 publication Mathematical Studies on Human Disease Dynamics: Emerging Paradigms and Challenges, was published by the American Mathematical Society and is now available. He has been appointed to the Santa Fe Institute's external faculty (Santa Fe, New Mexico) and as adjunct professor in the BSCB department at Cornell University.