The fluid dynamics of airborne disease transmission

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• Dr Rajesh Bhagat
• Thursday 06 October 2022, 13:10-14:00
• 1 Newnham Terrace, Darwin College.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Dr Sandra Petrus-Reurer.

Throughout human history, nothing has killed more people than infectious diseases. Natural pandemics are ever-present and the next pandemic is a matter of ‘when’, not ‘if’. The event frequency for pandemics caused by natural and synthetic pathogens are likely to increase due to human encroachment into natural environments, bio-terrorism threats, high population density urban settings, lifestyles, and global connectivity. Covid-19 caught us unprepared, and we ended up responding too late; nevertheless, in the last couple of years, we have made great strides in our understanding of the mechanism of airborne disease transmission and its control. To a considerable extent, airborne disease transmission is a fluid dynamics problem—the formation of droplets and aerosols are interfacial problems, and their transport and consequently the transmission is a building ventilation flow problem. The talk is divided into two parts: In the first part, I will briefly discuss the advances I have made in the field of interfacial flows. I have discovered processes of fundamental importance which have previously been unrecognised and which challenges the textbook understanding of these flows. Subsequently, I will briefly discuss the challenges associated with the ventilation flow problem and some of the key advances made in the field. And finally, I will summarise the outstanding questions—the known unknowns—that emerged from our work during the pandemic, which need to be addressed.

This talk is part of the Darwin College Science Seminars series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• 1 Newnham Terrace, Darwin College
• AUB_Cambridge Seminars
• All Talks (aka the CURE list)
• Centre for Health Leadership and Enterprise
• Chris Davis' list
• Darwin College Research Talks
• Darwin College Science Seminars
• Darwin Lectures and Seminars
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• Interested Talks
• Neurons, Fake News, DNA and your iPhone: The Mathematics of Information
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