Dr. Yi Sun received a research grant from the NSF Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS-2208467) on “Hybrid Kinetic Monte Carlo Methods with Applications in Biofabrication and Epidemics". The total amount of the award is $176,321 for three years (August 15, 2022 to July 31, 2025).

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has rapidly spread throughout the world. By August 10, 2022, more than 586 million cases and over 6.42 million fatalities have been reported, making it one of the deadliest pandemics to date. Over recent decades other epidemics such as HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, SARS, H1N1 swine flu, Ebola, Zika, measles, malaria, and tuberculosis have also caused tens of millions of deaths. To combat the pandemics of emergent and re-emergent infectious diseases, mathematical modeling and simulation plays an important role in predicting, assessing, and controlling potential outbreaks. Endothelial network formation is a critical process in fabricating functional vascular constructs, and it is a very crucial impediment in the state-of-the-art biofabrication technology. The goal of this project is to develop new hybrid kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) methods and algorithms for the study of complex biological systems and problems arising in epidemics and biofabrication. This project will provide multidisciplinary research training to graduate and undergraduate students interested in both computational mathematics and mathematical biology/computational epidemiology.