Lauren M. Childs

Contact Info

Lauren M. Childs
Cliff and Agnes Lilly Faculty Fellow
Archana S. Sathaye Junior Faculty Fellow in Mathematics
Associate Professor
Department of Mathematics
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA 24061

Office: 436 McBryde Hall, 311-C Steger Hall
Email: lchilds [at] vt [dot] edu
Phone: 540-231-8265

2023 - 2024 Michler Award Recipient

VT Center for the Mathematics of Biosystems (VT-CMB)
Associate Director

Professional Experience

• Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics, Virginia Tech
• August 2022 - present
• Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics, Virginia Tech
• August 2016 - August 2022
• Research Scientist, Department of Epidemiology, Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics, Harvard Chan School of Public Health
• November 2015 - August 2016
• Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Williams College
• January 2016 - June 2016
• MIDAS Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Epidemiology, Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics, Harvard Chan School of Public Health
• November 2012 - November 2015
• Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Mathematics and School of Biology, Georgia Tech
• September 2010 - October 2012

Education

• Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics, Cornell University, May 2010
• Masters in Applied Mathematics, Cornell University, May 2007
• B.S. in Mathematics and Chemistry, Duke University, May 2004

Conferences of Interest

• Brin Mathematics Research Center Workshop:

  • Mathematics of Malaria Transmission Dynamics
  • November 13 - 17, 2023

• American Institute of Mathematics Workshop:

  • Multi-scale modeling of malaria
  • April 10 - 14, 2023

• AMS Mathematics Research Community, Early Career Program:

  • Dynamics of Infectious Diseases: Ecological Models Across Multiple Scales
  • May 30 - June 5, 2021 Originally May 31 - June 6, 2020

• MORE - Mathematics - Opportunities in Research and Education Conference:

• MORE 2025 held at Virginia Tech on April 26-27 2025
• MORE 2023 held at Clemson University on October 21-22 2023
• MORE 2022 held at Virginia Tech on October 8-9, 2022
• STRIVE for MORE 2021 held virtually on September 25, 2021
• STRIVE for MORE 2020 held virtually on September 26, 2020
• MORE 2019 held at Virginia Tech on October 26-27, 2019

Press and Annoucements

• VT News on work in Bulletin of Mathematical Biology
• November 6, 2025
• VT News on Scary Science
• October 27, 2025
• VT Science Magazine on MORE Conference
• October, 2025
• VT News on Archana S Sathaye Fellowship in Mathematics
• May 28, 2025
• VT News on VT Center for the Mathematics of Biosystems Launch
• December 5, 2024
• VT News on Health Affairs Article
• February 5, 2024
• A Health Odyssey Podcast
• January 23, 2024
• VT News on Pandemic Preparedness Destination Area Funding
• August 21, 2023
Cornell News on work in Trends in Parasitology
• August 17, 2023
Project ARC's Women in Math Series
• Spring 2023
VT News about AWM Michler Award
• March 9, 2023
Michler Award Recipient
• AWM Michler Award Annuoncement
• February 13, 2023
• College of Science Instagram Highlight on NSF CAREER Award
• June 8, 2022
• VTx News article on Promotions and Tenure
• June 7, 2022
• VTx News article on NSF CAREER Award
• April 19, 2022
• VTx News article on Teaching about COVID
• February 1, 2022
• VTx News article on EEID Grant
• September 27, 2021
• VT News article on Outstanding Undergraduate Research including Lizzi Duncan
• May 24, 2021
• AMS News article on MRC on Infectious Disease Dynamics
• May 4, 2021
• VT News article on work in PLOS Pathogens on malaria transmission with multiple mosquito blood feeds
• February 23, 2021
• BugBitten Blog on work in PLOS Pathogens on malaria transmission with multiple mosquito blood feeds
• January 22, 2021
• Science Daily article on work in PLOS Pathogens on malaria transmission with multiple mosquito blood feeds
• December 31, 2020
• NPR article on work on COVID on College Campuses
• October 26, 2020
• Cliff and Agnes Lilly Faculty Fellowship Announcement
• October 25, 2020
• College of Science Annual Magazine story on COVID response.
• September 21, 2020
• VT News article on COVID-19 Modeling Taskforce.
• August 31, 2020
• VT News article on group to tackle infectious disease.
• August 27, 2020
• VT News article on NSF RAPID grant related to testing for COVID-19.
• July 27, 2020
• WRADradio interview on work in the Lancet Infectious Diseases and SIAM News on COVID-19 interventions
• July 6, 2020
• Moderator for Predictive Analytics Meets Pandemic Webinar
• June 24, 2020
• NPR article on work in the Lancet Infectious Diseases and SIAM News on COVID-19 interventions
• June 10, 2020
• WSLS article on work in the Lancet Infectious Diseases and SIAM News on COVID-19 interventions
• May 14, 2020
• Southwest Times article on work in the Lancet Infectious Diseases and SIAM News on COVID-19 interventions
• May 13, 2020
• Highlighted in the State of the College Address
• September 20, 2019
• VT News article on work in Nature on using anti-malarials in mosquitoes
• March 8, 2019
• Forbes article on work in Nature on using anti-malarials in mosquitoes
• February 27, 2019
• NPR article on work in Nature on using anti-malarials in mosquitoes
• February 27, 2019
• Telegraph article on work in Nature on using anti-malarials in mosquitoes
• February 27, 2019
• VT Seed grant for transdisciplinary work
• November 29, 2018
• Steven Strogatz in J. Mark Sowers Distinguished Lecture Series
• October 30-31, 2018
• ICSB Conference
• August 6-12, 2017
• VT Press Release on work in PLoS Pathogens on novel mosquito control
• January 18, 2017
• Featured publication in PLoS Pathogens - Harvard Press Release
• December 16, 2016
• Appointment in Mathematics Department - VT News Feature
• November 7, 2016