2023
Libin Rong takes a sabbatical leave in the year of 2023 – 2024
Libin Rong joins the Editorial Board of PLoS Complex Systems
Libin Rong joins the Editorial Board of Mathematical Biosciences and Engineering
Libin Rong joins the Editorial Board of CSIAM Journal on Life Sciences
Libin Rong is awarded a three-year NSF collaborative grant to study fluid dynamics and infectious diseases. It is a collaboration with Jin Wang and Reetesh Ranjan from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Mingwang Shen’s paper, published in AIDS, studied the impact of attrition on the transmission of HIV and drug resistance. Here is the Editorial Comment by Sally Blower et al.: Modeling UNAIDS treatment targets for China
Boya Yang defended her PhD dissertation and will join Dr. Arthur Sherman group at the NIH as a postdoc
Boya Yang studied the progression of Type 2 diabetes with underlying obesity and secondary diabetes
2022
Shasha Gao defended her PhD dissertation and will join Jiangxi Normal University (China) as a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor
Boya Yang is visiting Dr. Arthur Sherman group at the NIH in Fall 2022
Call for papers for a special issue on Multiscale modeling in epidemiology, which will be published in Mathematical Biosciences and Engineering. Guest editors: Xueying Wang, Libin Rong, and Jin Wang
Tyler Smith defended his PhD dissertation and joined a biotech company in Boston
Shasha Gao studied the influence of geographical mixing on HPV infection and vaccination
Boya Yang received the 2022 CAM Summer Graduate Research Fellowship
Shasha Gao assessed HPV vaccination strategies in the heterosexual population with a case study
2021
PhD student Boya Yang studied thyroid disorders
PhD student Shasha Gao evaluated the effect of vaccinating the MSM population in reducing HPV infection
Visiting student Sha He studied seasonal pollution, COVID-19 outbreak and future waves
Visiting student Ting Guo studied the role of macrophages in HIV persistence, HIV multiple infection, and how the activation status of infection affects HIV dynamics
Sunpeng Wang studied within-host viral dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 infection
Libin Rong was promoted to full professor, effective August 2021
Boya Yang won the Chat Yin Ho Scholarship, which is in memory of Dr. Chat Yin Ho and awarded to a promising math graduate student
2020
Libin Rong co-chairs the Modeling Within-host Dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 Session in The COVID-19 Dynamics & Evolution Conference Series – Part 2, October 19-20, 2020
Libin Rong is awarded a three-year NSF grant to study HIV persistence
A simple modeling tool for business executives to reopen their workplace after lockdown, a collaborative COVID-19 study led by Hongyu Miao
Hannah Anderson, who is advised by Tracy Stepien (Chair) and Libin Rong (Co-Chair), won the CTSI TL1 Training Grant and is working on a brain cancer modeling project with Jeffrey Harrison’s lab at UF College of Medicine
Shasha Gao won the Eleanor Ewing Ehrlich Award, which is in memory of Eleanor Ewing Ehrlich (1918-2011) and awarded to a female student for a promising start in research
2019
Sha He, a PhD student from Shaanxi Normal University, is visiting the group and will stay for two years
Boya Yang joined the group as a PhD student
Libin Rong gave lectures in the CIMPA Summer School of Mathematical Biology at Kathmandu, Nepal, June 17-26
Tyler Smith joined the group as a PhD student
Libin Rong joins the Editorial Board of the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, the official journal of The Society for Mathematical Biology
Libin Rong serves as the Associate Editor for the journal Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling, published by the BioMed Central (BMC)
2018
Call for papers for a special issue Non-smooth Biological Dynamical Systems and Applications, which will be published in Mathematical Biosciences and Engineering. Guest editors: Sanyi Tang, Yanni Xiao and Libin Rong
Ting Guo, a PhD student from Nanjing University of Science and Technology, is visiting the group and will stay for one year
Professor Zhipeng Qiu from Nanjing University of Science and Technology visited the group
Ryan Nikin-Beers joined the group as a Visiting Assistant Professor
Shasha Gao and Luc Olivier joined the group as PhD students
Disease by the Numbers, by Rachel Wayne, Ytori Magazine, Spring 2018
2017
A group of faculty and graduate students from Xinyang Normal University and Ningxia University are visiting Rong’s group
A paper modeling HIV drug pharmacodynamics is published on SIAM Applied Math. It is a joint work with Naveen Vaidya. Check the Research Nuggets on SIAM News: Mathematically Modeling HIV Drug Pharmacodynamics, by Karthika Swamy Cohen
Several positions are available in Rong’s group. See positions
Libin Rong moved from Oakland University to The University of Florida
2016
A paper studying the HIV dynamics under treatment with different classes of drugs was published in Bulletin of Mathematical Biology. The first author is Xia Wang, who visited Oakland in 2015
Libin Rong is taking sabbatical and visiting Los Alamos National Lab in Spring 2016
2015
A paper explaining why CD4+ T cells are slowly depleted during HIV infection was published in PLoS Computational Biology
PhD student Areej Alshorman has graduated and taken a post-doc position in University of Louisiana at Lafayette
A paper studying the control of the Ebola virus infection was published in Scientific Reports
Libin Rong joins the Editorial Board of the journal Mathematical Biosciences
Dr. Xia Wang will visit the group from Xinyang Normal University, Henan, China
There will be a special issue of the Journal of Coupled Systems and Multiscale Dynamics. Eddie Cheng, Libin Rong, and Anna Spagnuolo are the guest editors
STEM Workshop: Best Practices in Scientific Writing. Libin Rong is one of the panelists
Meiqi Song joined the group as an undergraduate research assistant
2014
The Department of Mathematics and Statistics will organize a one-day Applied Mathematics Conference on September 13, 2014. Libin Rong is one of the organizers
Libin Rong will give lectures in the Summer School of Mathematical Biology at Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China, in July, and give a talk in the Annual Meeting of the SMB (Society of Mathematical Biology) in Osaka, Japan, in August
High school student Daniel Lin received an internship this summer to work at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, a United States Department of Energy National Laboratory operated by Stanford University
Libin Rong received the 2014 Marian P. Wilson Award, which “honors a meritorious book or article written by one or more faculty members from the College of Arts and Sciences at Oakland University”
Libin Rong received the NSF CAREER Award, which “offers the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious award in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization”
High school student Daniel Lin attended the 57th Annual Science and Engineering Fair of Metro Detroit 2013-2014. He got the 3rd place in the Intel Michigan State Fair
Libin Rong is an invited speaker of the 2014 Annual Meeting of the Michigan Section of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA)
Graduate student Gregory Mink passed the oral exam required for obtaining his Master Degree at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Graduate student Gregory Mink gave a presentation in the 2014 Conference of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts & Letters
A special issue on Modelling in Infectious Diseases has been published by Journal of Biological Systems. Maia Martcheva and Libin Rong are the guest editors
2013
Former PhD student Kasia Pawelek is on TV and in local news for her research in the control of mosquitoes and related diseases in South Carolina
Areej Alshorman joined the group as a PhD student
High school student Daniel Lin is selected to attend The Rockefeller University Summer Science Research Program (SSRP)
Math professor to present work at conference in China, OU News
Commentary on the PNAS article: Mathematical modeling: A tool for selecting agents with complementary modes of action?, Journal of Hepatology
The PNAS article, Modeling shows that the NS5A inhibitor daclatasvir has two modes of action and yields a shorter estimate of the hepatitis C virus half-life, has been selected for F1000Prime
Graduate student Chathuri Samarasinghe won the Graduate Research Assistant Tuition (GReAT) award
Former PhD student Kasia Pawelek and her students are in the media of South Carolina for their research in the control of West Nile virus and influenza
Libin Rong will organize a session Viral Dynamics and Drug Treatment in The Fourth Conference on Computational and Mathematical Population Dynamics (CMPD4), Taiyuan, China
Undergraduate student Michael Joseph ‘Joey’ Meyer has chosen the University of Virginia for his graduate study and he will focus on quantitative Psychology
Undergraduate student Michael Joseph ‘Joey’ Meyer won the Lou Bragg Award
Gregory Mink joined the group as a graduate research assistant in summer 2013
Undergraduate student Michael Joseph ‘Joey’ Meyer was selected to be a student speaker at the commencement ceremony
Libin Rong won the 2013 New Investigator Research Excellence Award, which “recognizes one junior faculty member (non-tenured) for the significant achievements at Oakland University”
Libin Rong was awarded the CBR Research Excellence Fund to support graduate students
New study on hepatitis C drug treatment in vivo and in vitro, Science Daily
Two papers studying hepatitis C were published in PNAS and PLoS Computational Biology
2012
OU professor recognized for postdoctoral physics work, OU news
Libin Rong received the 2012 Leon Heller Postdoctoral Publication Prize in Theoretical Physics, which is “a biennial prize sponsored by Leon Heller and Los Alamos National Laboratory, awarded for the best article in theoretical physics”
Chathuri Samarasinghe joined the group as a graduate student
PhD student Kasia Pawelek accepted a tenure-track position at University of South Carolina Beaufort
Giao Huynh published a paper studying Epstein-Barr virus dynamics in Journal of Theoretical Biology
Libin Rong gave lectures in the Rocky Mountain Mathematics Consortium Summer School at University of Wyoming
A paper studying combination therapy for flu was published in Journal of Infectious Diseases
Pawel Marcinek joined the group as a graduate research assistant in summer 2012
Both innate and adaptive immune responses are critical to the control of influenza, Science Daily
2011
Libin Rong is awarded NSF grant to study HIV
Kasia Pawelek won the best poster award in Sigma Xi/Center for Biomedical Research Festival
Undegraduate Joey Meyer joined the group as an undergraduate research assistant in summer 2011
Kasia Pawelek won the best poster award in the 2011 SIAM Great Lakes Section Spring Meeting
Libin Rong received a subcontract award from Harvard Medical School to study SIV persistence
Kasia Pawelek won two University Research Committee Student Research Awards
Libin Rong was profiled in OU College of Arts and Sciences
2010
Giao Huynh joined the group as a Post-doctoral Research Associate
A paper studying HIV was published in PLoS Computational Biology
Marc Ratajczak joined the group as an undergraduate research assistant in summer 2010
Rong’s numbers: accelerating progress in HCV therapeutic research, Science Translational Medicine
Hepatitis C resists Vertex drug needs cocktails, Bloomberg Businessweek
Combination of direct antivirals may be key to curing hepatitis C, Science Daily
A paper studying hepatitis C was published in Science Translational Medicine
Kasia Pawelek joined the group as a PhD student
Libin Rong was featured in OU Research Magazine
Libin Rong has moved from Los Alamos National Lab to Oakland University in Michigan