Abstracts

Contributed Talks and Posters Book of Abstracts

AMP26_Book_of_Abstracts.pdf

Plenary Abstracts

Title TBC

Professor Matt Keeling, University of Warwick

The Epidemiology group at the Zeeman Institute for Systems Biology & Infectious Disease Epidemiology Research

(SBIDER) has been at the forefront of health policy advice at the level of international NGOs as well as UK and

overseas governments. Matthew Keeling will share their experience of the pipeline from data analysis to model predictions and action by state-level decision makers.

Modelling accumulation of toxic substances in bacterial cells: a route to suppressing antimicrobial resistance

Professor Sara Jabbari, University of Birmingham

The global rise in antimicrobial resistance levels, coupled with the downturn in discovery of new antibiotics, has resulted in an urgent need for novel ways to tackle bacterial infections. Most antibiotics work by accumulating inside bacterial cells, but bacteria have evolved mechanisms to prevent prolonged intracellular exposure to toxic substances including by limiting the permeability of their membrane (to prevent substances entering the cell) and activating efflux pumps (to secrete substances outside of the cell). Understanding how these processes are regulated under different conditions presents a route for us to manipulate them for therapeutic gain. We will present a variety of mathematical modelling approaches, integrated with experimental data where possible, to investigate the dynamics of toxic substance accumulation in bacteria cells. This computational framework enables the generation of experimentally-testable predictions on the optimisation of accumulation.

The maths that keeps the lights on

Dr Stanislav Zhydkov, Smith Institute

As the UK pushes towards Clean Power 2030 and Net Zero by 2050, mathematics plays a pivotal role in each and every part of the increasingly complex energy system. Behind the scenes, models and algorithms are constantly informing and making decisions about how to keep the system stable, affordable, and moving in the right direction.
In this talk, we’ll look at a small but diverse set of problems that show up in real-world projects. How do we safely squeeze more output from a nuclear reactor without crossing critical limits? How do we decide what to do during system stress events, when keeping the lights on becomes a race against time? And how do we design markets that incentivise investment into a low-carbon future without simply pushing costs onto consumers?
These challenges cut across physics, optimisation, forecasting, and strategic behaviour. Drawing on examples from industry work -- from modelling nuclear operations to analysing reserve procurement and simulating market incentives -- I’ll try to give a flavour of what applied mathematics looks like in practice after a PhD.

Hydrogels: a playground for applied mathematicians

Dr Matthew Hennesy, University of Bristol

Hydrogels are soft, fluid-filled solids that have a remarkable ability to change their size and shape in response to their environment. Harnessing this environmental responsiveness has led to hydrogels being used in a vast range of applications that include biomedicine, soft robotics, and personal-care products. However, tailoring the behaviour of hydrogels for specific applications remains a major challenge due to their multi-scale and multi-physics nature. The goal of this talk is to showcase the rich variety of mathematical challenges that arise when studying hydrogels, which spans mathematical modelling, multi-scale analysis, nonlinear dynamics, and optimisation. The talk will begin with a gentle introduction to the mathematics of hydrogels, discuss hydrogel modelling in the context of drug delivery and 3D printing, and conclude with a discussion of open mathematical challenges.

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