Visiting lecturer: Talitha Washington

Talitha Washington is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at the Howard University. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from Spelman College in 1996, and a Doctorate in mathematics in 2001 from the University of Connecticut. Dr. Washington was a VIGRE postdoctoral fellow at Duke University from 2001 through 2003. Her work there included using differential equations to model luteinizing hormone (LH) secretion in response to long term exposure to gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH). She proposed a model which involves key processes including desensitization of calcium channels, internalization of the dimerized receptors and recycling of some of the internalized receptors, and an increase in Gq concentration near the plasma membrane in response to receptor dimerization.

Dr. Washington will lecture on "A Non-Standard Finite Difference Scheme for a Mathematical Model of Respiratory Virus Transmission". She will discuss her recent work with Ron Mickens of Clark Atlanta University. This involves constructing a Non-Standard Finite Difference (NSFD) scheme for an SIR mathematical model of respiratory virus transmission. She will provide a discretization of the model's equations that is fully in compliance with the NSFD methodology as formulated by Mickens.