A Model for HIV

March 10, 2018

There are always endless opportunities in the world of academia to combine different fields of study to provide important research. This is quite true for Mathematics professors David Gerberry and Hem Raj Joshi, who co-published a paper entitled "A mechanism by which mass incarceration contributes to HIV disparities in the United States" in the Electronic Journal of Differential Equations.

According to Gerberry, the paper was inspired by past research conducted by previous College of Arts and Sciences’ Biology students and their research mentor Dr. Jennifer Robbins (Biology), along with the assistance of Dr. Max Buot (Mathematics). The findings of this paper showed that populations with gender imbalance tend to have significantly higher HIV incidence rates. Mass incarceration leads to this gender imbalance and higher incidence rate.

Hence, the main purpose of Gerberry and Joshi’s paper was to develop a mathematical model in order to show a mechanism by which gender imbalance can lead to higher HIV incidence. Joshi presented the paper at the 2018 Joints Meetings of the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America in San Diego, California.