Large Scale, Detailed Simulation of Epidemics Chris Barrett Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Network Dynamics and Simulation Science Laboratory Virginia Bioinformatics Institute Virginia Tech Research Building XV (0477) 1880 Pratt Drive Blacksburg, VA 24061 USA Abstract: Large scale simulation of detailed population activities and movements on the scale of urbanized regions and nations is becoming possible. This capability leads to direct synthesis of very large dynamic social interaction networks. Interaction-based processes such as contagious disease epidemics can then be simulated in very different ways than previously possible, offering intriguing possibilities: The details of the interplay between the disease processes, social interactions, behavioral changes and public health interventions can be generated; the co-evolution of the activities, decisions taken and the course of a disease can be better understood.This talk will describe the Simfrastructure and Episims projects in this context and will describe several theoretical issues raised, as well as some practical aspects offered by these simulations to epidemiological analysis and decision making, by these advances computational methods and information systems. Bio: Professor Barrett earned an MS in Engineering Science and a PhD in Bioinformation Systems from Caltech after serving 7 years as a naval officer in submarines. After graduate school he served as an officer-scientist at the Naval Air Development Center , working on advanced concepts for intelligent sensor fusion and command and control systems in naval tactical aircraft platforms and distributed air combat systems. Dr Barrett moved to Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1988 and continued working on intelligent and self organizing sensor and tactical networks and the simulation of large social systems. He established a research group in simulation science focused on theory and applications for distributed high performance computing-based simulation of large networked systems. He designed and lead HPC simulation projects in space based distributed remote sensing, human in the loop intelligent systems, self organizing control networks, urban dynamics, intermodal transportation systems, self organizing communication and computation networks, computational epidemiology, and other topics. He spent a sabbatical year as a visiting professor in regional planning at the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm . Retired from LANL in August 2004. Since September 2004, Professor Barrett has been a professor of computer science and bioinformatics at Virginia Tech and Director, Network Dynamics & Simulation Science Laboratory of the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech. The NDSSL is currently primarily working on detailed large scale population dynamics, social networks and simulation of contagious disease epidemics.