Arni Rao 
Professor | Augusta University
Augusta, GA, UNITED STATES
A respected leader in mathematical modeling for tracing the spread of infectious diseases, including COVID-19.
Biography
Dr. Rao is a Professor in the Division of Health Economics and Modeling, Department of Population Health Sciences and Director at the Laboratory for Theory and Mathematical Modeling, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta University. Until 2012, he held a permanent faculty position at Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. He had taught and/or performed research at several premier institutions including, the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), University of Oxford (Oxford, UK), the Indian Institute of Science (Bengaluru, India) and the University of Guelph, (Guelph, Canada) prior to his arrival at Augusta University.
Areas of Expertise (4)
Complex Dynamics,
Mathematical Analyses
Infectious Disease
Mathematical Modeling and Simulation
Accomplishments (3)
ISCB23 Conference Awards for Scientists 2002, Dijon, France
An award presented by The International Society for Clinical Biostatistics.
Heiwa Nakajima Foundation Award, Tokyo
An awared presented by Heiwa Nakajima Foundation
Gold Medal for M.Sc Topper
An award presented by Andhra University
Education (2)
Deemed University, Internation: Doctoral degree, Demography and Population Stud
Andhra University: Master's degree, Pre-Medicine/Pre-Medical Studi
Affiliations (5)
- The American Mathematical Monthly
- Handbook of Statistics (Elsevier/North-Holland, Amsterdam)
- Demography India
- Theoretical Computer Science (Elsevier)
- Journal of the Royal Society Interface
Media Appearances (3)
Mathematical modeling draws more accurate picture of coronavirus cases
Augusta University Jagwire online
2020-04-13
Mathematical modeling can take what information is reported about the coronavirus, including the clearly underreported numbers of cases, factor in knowns like the density and age distribution of the population in an area, and compute a more realistic picture of the virus’ infection rate, numbers that will enable better prevention and preparation, modelers say.
App, AI work together to provide rapid at-home assessment of coronavirus risk
Augusta University Jagwire
2020-03-01
A coronavirus app coupled with machine intelligence will soon enable an individual to get an at-home risk assessment based on how they feel and where they’ve been in about a minute, and direct those deemed at risk to the nearest definitive testing facility, investigators say.
Professor develops new system to track spread of coronavirus
Augusta University Jagwire online
2020-02-01
The death toll from the coronavirus has risen to nearly 500, and the number of virus cases has climbed to almost 25,000, including 11 in the United States. As public health officials work to stop the spread of the illness, an Augusta University researcher has developed a mathematical model and algorithm to help health organizations track the spread of potential outbreaks.
Articles (1)
Disease Modelling and Public Health, Part A, Volume 36 addresses new challenges in existing and emerging diseases with a variety of comprehensive chapters that cover Infectious Disease Modeling, Bayesian Disease Mapping for Public Health, Real time estimation of the case fatality ratio and risk factor of death, Alternative Sampling Designs for Time-To-Event Data with Applications to Biomarker Discovery in Alzheimer's Disease, Dynamic risk prediction for cardiovascular disease: An illustration using the ARIC Study, Theoretical advances in type 2 diabetes, Finite Mixture Models in Biostatistics, and Models of Individual and Collective Behavior for Public Health Epidemiology. As a two part volume, the series covers an extensive range of techniques in the field. It present a vital resource for statisticians who need to access a number of different methods for assessing epidemic spread in population, or in formulating public health policy.
