Alex Best

Lloyd’s Scholar Award, University of California, Berkeley - Applied Mathematics

Mathematical models of infectious diseases have rarely been more prominent in our lives. Alex’s research uses such models to understand the evolution between disease-causing parasites and their animal or plant hosts. As a Fulbright-Lloyds Scholar he will work with Prof Boots' lab at UC Berkeley to bring together these mathematical models with their expert biological knowledge and data. Alex is proud to be departmental director for equality, diversity and inclusion in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Sheffield. He is passionate about promoting under-represented groups in mathematics, and he hopes to learn from colleagues at UC Berkeley about how to further promote ED&I, especially in light of heightened gender disparities during the Covid-19 lockdown and the Black Lives Matter movement. He will be travelling to the US with his partner and three young children. This is an unbelievable chance for his family to experience living in another country, and they are looking forward to exploring everything California has to offer.