Kendra Wu is the Director of K&G Foundation and an epidemiologist. Previously, she worked as Postdoctoral Researcher in Statistical/ Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases at the Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health of Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine at University of Oxford.
Kendra’s research uses mathematics and statistics to study the who, when, where, and why of various infectious diseases. In greater details, she combines empirical data with computational tools, such as mathematical and statistical analyses, to study the transmission mechanisms of infectious diseases in order to quantify the risk, severity, and patterns of the spread of diseases under different scenarios. These investigations aim at gaining insights into the epidemiological factors and population processes that shape infectious disease spread, informing the design of more effective treatment options, prevention strategies, and control interventions, as well as preparing the community and the healthcare sector for the amount and nature of the casualties they will get in case of an outbreak.
Her focus has been on emerging and re-emerging pathogens, including respiratory pathogens, and more recently priority pathogens focus by the World Health Organization and the UK Vaccine Network. Current and former topics she has been involved in include, but not limited to, outbreak parameter estimation, transmission model development, particularly contact networks, epidemological characteristics of emerging diseases, vaccine trial development, and trend analysis for historical disease records.
Aside from infectious diseases, Kendra is also involved in research in geriatric medicine, ethics, and health in conflicts/ disasters.
Kendra was trained in engineering, then in geriatric medicine, and subsequently community medicine and epidemiology, with a focus on infectious disease epidemiology and modelling.
Copyright © 2018-2023 Kendra M. Wu. All rights reserved. Last Update: 2 April 2023