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MIDAS

2026 Steering Committee Nominee

Voting closes on March 5th at 5PM ET

Members, you will receive an email with voting instructions.

About the MIDAS Steering Committee

MIDAS is governed by a 12-member steering committee consisting of MIDAS members and external collaborators. The steering committee represents the broader MIDAS community and aims to support the network in fulfilling its mission and vision.

 

Each year, the steering committee reviews the the MIDAS Coordination Center (MCC) annual report of conducted and planned activities, including past and planned expenditures. During the annual MIDAS meeting, the steering committee will provide feedback on the report to the MCC and NIH. The MCC will include the steering committee feedback in their annual progress report to NIH.

 

Steering committee members are invited from the MIDAS community by the MCC in such a way that any MIDAS member has an equal opportunity to volunteer. Steering committee members nominate and elect a chair and each member serves a two-year term. Steering committee members rotate off and on in a staggered timeline, to ensure that the committee always includes new and experienced members.

 

The steering committee represents MIDAS in conversations with partner and funding agencies, can start a process to modify the mission and vision of the network, and oversees activities of the MCC.

 

The steering committee meets twice per year, once by video conference, and during the annual MIDAS meeting.

 

2026 Steering Committee voting will be open until the close of business (5pm ET) on March 5, 2026. Please vote before that time.  Please send an email to questions@midasnetwork.us if you did not receive the voting link in your email.

 

Faculty/Research Scientist Nominees

Abdessamad Tridane
Professor
United Arab Emirates University
NOMINEE STATEMENT:
The mathematical epidemiology community is expanding, highlighting the need to connect research efforts worldwide. In the Middle East and Gulf countries, there are unique opportunities for research in mathematical and computational modeling to enhance preparedness and response to infectious diseases, operating within a different ecosystem from that of North America or Europe. Joining the MIDAS steering committee could help expand MIDAS's network and influence in this region. I serve as the principal investigator for modeling and forecasting the impact of COVID-19 in Abu Dhabi and the UAE. Additionally, I am a member of the Abu Dhabi epidemiological committee and was the lead scientist for modeling COVID-19 spread during the Hajj season. Currently, I am working on a project to model vector-borne diseases in the GCC. I am also engaged in research projects with the Global Institute for Disease Elimination (GLIDE), which could potentially partner with MIDAS in the future.
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Eric May
Associate Professor
University of Connecticut
NOMINEE STATEMENT:
Dr. Eric R. May is a Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Connecticut and a computational biophysicist whose research focuses on multiscale modeling of biomolecular systems. His research uses advanced computational methods to investigate infection-related aspects of viral structure, dynamics, and mechanisms of cell entry. He leads an NIH-supported research program and is a recipient of an NIH NIAID Research Scholar Development Award and the ACS OpenEye Outstanding Junior Faculty Award in Computational Chemistry. He was a plenary speaker at the 2023 American Society of Virology Annual Meeting and regularly serves on NIH and international study sections. He received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Florida and completed postdoctoral training in chemistry and biophysics at the University of Michigan.
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Kaiming Bi
Assistant Professor
UTHealth Houston
NOMINEE STATEMENT:
Dr. Kaiming Bi is an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Health at UTHealth Houston. As an infectious disease modeler, he develops data-driven, mechanistic, and agent-based models to inform public health decision-making, with emphasis on influenza, COVID-19, measles (MMR vaccination), and other respiratory pathogens. His research integrates theoretical epidemic modeling, synthetic population generation, and real-time data analytics to strengthen epidemic preparedness, scenario projection, and policy evaluation. Dr. Bi has contributed to national modeling collaborations, including the US Scenario Modeling Hub, the EpiENGAGE Center, and InsightsNet. He has published policy-relevant projection studies in leading journals such as Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, JAMA Health Forum, and Nature Communications. He also serves on the editorial boards of BMC Public Health and BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making. Prior to joining UTHealth Houston, Dr. Bi earned his Ph.D. from Kansas State University and held research appointments at The University of Texas at Austin and University of California San Diego.
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Sen Pei
Assistant Professor
Columbia University
NOMINEE STATEMENT:
I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University. With training in mathematics, network science, and complex systems, I develop mathematical models and computational tools to advance surveillance, forecasting, and control of seasonal and emerging infectious agents, aiming to better understand, predict, and prepare for disease outbreaks. My recent studies focus on respiratory viruses and antimicrobial-resistant pathogens. I have been actively engaged in MIDAS activities since 2015, and the MIDAS network has played a critical role in my scientific and professional development. Serving on the Steering Committee would be a meaningful way to give back to the MIDAS community and better support early-career investigators and international scholars.
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tom mcandrew
Associate Professor
Lehigh University
NOMINEE STATEMENT:
Thomas McAndrew is a faculty member in the Department of Biostatistics and Health Data Science in the College of Health at Lehigh University. He is an expert in the mathematical modeling of infectious diseases. The aim of his research is to improve the predictive power of infectious disease models by augmenting surveillance data with human judgment. In addition, McAndrew studies the impact of forecasts on the public health decision making process. The overarching goal of his work is to use mathematics to improve the health and well being of others. McAndrew is a long-term member of the MIDAS community. In line with the mission of MIDAS and in service to public health, McAndrew generates real-time forecasts of influenza at federal and state level to support public health decision makers. If elected, McAndrew would aim to better understand the needs of MIDAS members, how to connect modelers and decision makers, and learn how to best improve data infrastructure to support the study of infectious diseases (Lab Website = https://compuncertlab.org).
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Postdoc Nominees

Emmanuelle Dankwa
Postdoctoral Researcher
Harvard University
NOMINEE STATEMENT:
I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics (CCDD) in the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. Prior to CCDD, I earned a PhD in Statistics at the University of Oxford and a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Ghana. At CCDD, I work on modeling the transmission dynamics of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis to support policy decisions on tuberculosis control. I am also involved in efforts to increase capacity in infectious disease transmission modelling in Africa. To this end, I contribute to the design and delivery of a Rwanda-based training course aimed at public health professionals in Africa. I desire to serve MIDAS by representing its postdoctoral and graduate student community in the steering committee. As a postdoctoral researcher and recent graduate, I will solicit and bring perspectives of colleagues at these career levels to committee discussions. Additionally, being a member of an ethnic minority, serving in the committee will provide an opportunity to contribute to diversifying the breadth of perspectives available in decision making. Having served successfully in similar representative positions, I possess the skills to contribute meaningfully to the steering committee. During my doctoral studies at the University of Oxford, I represented the interests of colleagues as a graduate student representative in the Graduate Liaison Committee in the Department of Statistics, as a welfare representative at St Peter’s College, Oxford and as the treasurer in the 2019/20 executive committee of the Oxford Africa Society.
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Rachel Mercaldo
Research Fellow
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
NOMINEE STATEMENT:
I earned my PhD at the University of Georgia (UGA), where I served as the student representative for our department, as well as for all students in the College of Public Health’s Curriculum and Programs Committee. I found the responsibility immensely rewarding, and value the opportunity to apply my experience within MIDAS. At UGA, I completed my PhD in the department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, as a fellow in the Interdisciplinary Disease Ecology Across Scales (IDEAS) training program. I value my time with IDEAS as one of the most formative of my graduate school experience, as it taught me to integrate information from diverse systems into a modeling framework. I brought this skillset with me to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), where it has been invaluable in our group’s study of environmental pathogens such as nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM). My other areas of research are spatial epidemiology methodology, climate change models, and the phylogeography of tuberculosis and NTM.
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Student Nominee

Sunday Gbodogbe
PhD Student and Graduate Assistant
Tai Solarin University of Education
NOMINEE STATEMENT:
Sunday Oluwafemi Gbodogbe is a Ph.D. student in Mathematical Sciences at Indiana University Indianapolis and a valedictorian whose work advances the interface of mathematical theory and infectious disease epidemiology. His research centers on the development and rigorous analysis of deterministic and fractional-order epidemic models, with applications to cholera, Nipah virus, diphtheria, rotavirus, and other emerging infectious diseases. He integrates optimal control theory, numerical simulation, and data-informed modeling to evaluate intervention strategies and inform public health decision-making. His scholarship has resulted in multiple peer-reviewed publications, and he has presented his work at the MIDAS Annual Meeting. In addition to his research contributions, he serves as a journal reviewer and actively engages in collaborative modeling initiatives. He is committed to advancing methodological rigor, interdisciplinary collaboration, and inclusive participation within the MIDAS community.
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Student Nominees

Sunday Gbodogbe
PhD Student and Graduate Assistant
Tai Solarin University of Education
NOMINEE STATEMENT:
Sunday Oluwafemi Gbodogbe is a Ph.D. student in Mathematical Sciences at Indiana University Indianapolis and a valedictorian whose work advances the interface of mathematical theory and infectious disease epidemiology. His research centers on the development and rigorous analysis of deterministic and fractional-order epidemic models, with applications to cholera, Nipah virus, diphtheria, rotavirus, and other emerging infectious diseases. He integrates optimal control theory, numerical simulation, and data-informed modeling to evaluate intervention strategies and inform public health decision-making. His scholarship has resulted in multiple peer-reviewed publications, and he has presented his work at the MIDAS Annual Meeting. In addition to his research contributions, he serves as a journal reviewer and actively engages in collaborative modeling initiatives. He is committed to advancing methodological rigor, interdisciplinary collaboration, and inclusive participation within the MIDAS community.
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