The Covid-19 pandemic causes a massive disruption for the entire world, and for the scientific community. In what way has the pandemic changed the conditions of science? And how has science helped alter the course of the pandemic?
Join us for a free seminar on the intereffect between science and the Covid-19 pandemic. We are excited to present an outstanding set of speakers, Anders Overgaard Bjarklev and Kim Sneppen, who will give their perspective on the intereffect between science and corona followed by a discussion on how to cope with the mid- and post Covid-19 reality of research. The event will be accessible through Webex and it is open to everyone interested in the future development of science. We also offer a limited number of physical seats in the Novo Nordisk Foundation building at Tuborg Havnevej 19, 2900 Hellerup.
Register to receive a link.
Kim Sneppen: Super-spreaders in the Corona Epidemics
Recently, a powerful example of a replicating nano-machinery entered our society. In principle, it’s just a normal disease that one attempts to model with 2 parameters: a timescale, and a replication factor (the famous R0). Then, one tries to guess how changes in society changes R0 and perhaps adopt some more or less strong lock-down measures. However, this virus have more “personality” than that. It behaves different in different persons, and persons behave differently. Presumably only a few of us infect a lot, while most does not infect so much. This assumption is supported by the observation that couples living together only infect each other with about 15 percent probability, indicating that most infected people are not really infectious. Kim Sneppen will discuss this and suggest that limiting superspreading opportunities is a cost effective strategy to mitigate Covid-19.
Anders Overgaard Bjarklev: Covid-19 and the Danish Universities
Covid-19 has brought both challenges and opportunities to the Danish universities. The presentation will look into the experience of the pandemic’s influence on the Danish universities and investigate to what extent the scientific community has functioned as a problem solver during the crisis, and how this may effect the future role of science.
PROGRAM
16:00 Introduction to Cluster Seminar 2020 w/
Sofie Singbrant Söderberg
Senior Programme Lead, PhD, Novo Nordisk Foundation
16:10 Presentation 1 on Corona’s Impact on Science
Anders Overgaard Bjarklev
Chairman of the Danish Rectors’ Conference and President of DTU
16:40 Presentation 2 on Science’s Impact on Corona
Kim Sneppen: Super-spreaders in the Corona Epidemics
Head of Center for Models of Life and Professor in Biocomplexity at Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen
17:10 Discussion
17:30 Closing remarks
The seminar is free of charge for participants. Sign up to receive a link to participate online. At the day of the event, you will receive an open link through which you can access the seminar. Upon entry, you will be asked to download the Webex app/software if you do not already have it on your phone/computer.
This event replaces Cluster Days 2020
Nothing is like it usually is these days, and we regret to inform you that also Cluster Days will be different this year.
The purpose with Cluster Days is to gather all the Novo Nordisk Foundation research centers and major grant holders for a day of open meetings, discussions and networking across institutions in an inclusive setting and thus strengthening the familiarity and the basis for collaboration. The conditions are, unfortunately, not supporting such an event this year.
Hence, we have chosen to convert this year’s Cluster Days into an open seminar on how science and Corona have affected one another. In this way, we can respect the restricted health guidelines and provide exclusive content to our grant holders and those who are interested while keeping the participants’ screen time at a minimum.
In extension of the event, we are working on establishing some working groups for knowledge sharing, sparring and networking around how researchers face the challenges that the mid-/post-Corona world poses for people in science. More info on these will follow.
