Potent combination of math and medicine inspires grad
This is one in a series of profiles showcasing some of Harvard’s stellar graduates. Deep in the rainforests of Madagascar, Akshaya Annapragada was counting chickens. Then, as a first-year, Annapragada traveled to the African island nation to conduct field work with a team of researchers led by Christopher Golden, assistant professor of nutrition and planetary health at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health. They studied the impact of vaccinations on poultry flocks kept by Malagasy community members. The team set out to determine how vaccinating chickens against the deadly (for poultry) Newcastle disease could create a healthy, sustainable food source for communities that have relied on increasingly scarce wild meats for centuries. Armed with firsthand chicken population data, Annapragada built and analyzed predictive mathematical models to identify vaccination level targets that would produce herd immunity. “For me, that experience brought home this idea that the really intense mathematical tools I was learning, when you...