A Georgetown University biology professor launched an international society dedicated to investigating infectious disease dynamics, the department of biology announced Feb. 2.
Shweta Bansal, a biology professor and principal investigator of an infectious disease lab, served as chair of the founding committee for the Global Society for Infectious Disease Dynamics (GSIDD), which aims to create an international network of key researchers invested in the field. Alongside Bansal, Eric Mooring (CAS ’13) and Elizabeth Lee (GRD ’17) helped found GSIDD, which will officially launch at an event on Feb. 26.
Bansal said the COVID-19 pandemic exemplified the need for GSIDD in order to better provide directions to slow the spread of diseases.
“The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted both the critical importance of infectious disease modeling and the need for strong professional networks that can rapidly mobilize expertise and share knowledge during public health crises,” Bansal wrote to The Hoya.
Practitioners of infectious disease dynamics examine how diseases spread in populations of humans, plants and animals through mathematical and computational approaches, in order to predict potential disease scenarios quantitatively and make recommendations to prevent disease. The society aims to amplify global efforts in infectious disease dynamics through conferences, seminar series, advocacy and increased communication.
Bansal said the most important part of the launch was an extensive consultation process with infectious disease researchers, modeling networks and consortia around the world.
“Through this, we’ve got to gather feedback about the gaps that exist in our community and what the role of a professional society could be for us,” Bansal said. “Often professional societies start up when the field is just getting started, and so it grows with the field, whereas for infectious disease dynamics, we’re about a 50-year-old field at this point, so there’s a lot in place already.”
“So it was really important to us to have that listening phase to figure out what’s missing and whether this is indeed useful, and that’s been invaluable in shaping the mission and goals of the society,” Bansal added.
Ronda Rolfes, biology department chair, said Bansal’s achievement is novel, as it approaches diseases in a new way.
“Dr. Bansal is in a unique position to form a new society, with new methodologies and new approaches to studying these infectious disease dynamics,” Rolfes told The Hoya. “So pulling in expertise from other fields and adding to that, I think, is what’s remarkable about this, is that it’s new and she’s a leader in this new society.”
Bansal said two of the main values she has pushed for during the initial phase of GSIDD are belonging and integration, as she found it difficult to feel accepted as a graduate student in the field.
“When I was a graduate student, I really struggled to find a sense of belonging in the field,” Bansal said. “I loved the work that I did; it was so impactful, it was quantitative, it was applied. I loved all aspects of it, but really it was tricky to feel a sense of belonging, and I don’t just mean that because I’m a woman of color in science, it was mostly because it’s a highly interdisciplinary field.”
Sophie Maretz (CAS ’26), an undergraduate student researcher within Bansal’s lab, said she expects the society to act as an international community, providing training opportunities for students interested in infectious diseases on a global level.
“Just being in this lab, I’ve met people from around the world that work with infectious diseases and are working on similar projects and can give really, really good insight into what they’re doing,” Maretz told The Hoya. “It makes sense because our lab requires the connections with those people because if not, then the study of infections, it’s not just ‘Oh, what’s happening on this petri dish?’ It’s ‘What’s happening in the world?’ It’s a very people-focused discipline.”
Bansal said she hopes GSIDD’s launch will spark an interest in infectious disease dynamics among Georgetown students and young academics.“I’m really hoping that a dedicated professional society for infectious disease dynamics means that we won’t just expand opportunities globally, but it’ll also be a chance for Georgetown global health students and early career researchers to learn about this field and to find their place in it, because we are always needing more help,” Bansal said. “We need more people involved. It’s a really important and critical field, and so getting young people excited about it is really the key.”
