Dr Akira Endo is an Assistant Professor at the NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health. His research focuses on mathematical modelling of infectious disease dynamics in the population. Compared with other types of diseases, infectious diseases are unique in that protecting an individual from a disease also means protecting other people by reducing their risk of exposure to the pathogen. This “interdependency” makes the control of infectious disease outbreaks an important social agenda. His current research interests include disease spread within and across households/schools/workplaces, transmission dynamics over heterogeneous social and/or sexual networks and quantitative design and assessment of optimal control strategies.