Professor Mick Roberts
Institute of Information and Mathematical Sciences
Massey University
Auckland

Mick Roberts is now in his fifth year at Massey University, where he is Professor in Mathematical Biology and Director of the Centre for Mathematical Biology. He was appointed as Associate Professor in Mathematics in 2003 after more than 20 years with AgResearch, New Zealand's biggest Crown Research Institute, and was promoted to a personal chair in 2006. His first degree was a B.Sc. in aeronautical engineering from Bristol University, which was followed by an M.Sc. in applicable mathematics from Cranfield Institute of Technology supervised by Alistair Wood. He then moved to New Zealand and completed a Ph.D. in mathematics at Victoria University of Wellington, supervised by John Harper.

Mick's main research interest is in how to model the spread of infectious diseases, and he has published one hundred refereed papers and book chapters on the subject. He has been collaborating with Hans Heesterbeek (Utrecht University) for fifteen years, at an average rate of one joint paper per year, ever since they shared an office for six months at the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge. In recent years he has also carried out research on the dynamics of childhood infections (measles and pertussis) for the Ministry of Health, which resulted in changes to the vaccination schedule for both diseases in New Zealand. Other projects for MoH have included the threat from smallpox as a bioterrorist weapon, the SARS outbreak and the threat from pandemic influenza. In 2005 he had a sabbatical period as a Christensen Fellow at St. Catherine's College, Oxford, working on models for the evolution of the HIV virus. He received the NZMS Award for Mathematical Research in 2006.