I'm an Infectious Disease Modeller currently working as group leader Quantitative and Predictive Infectious Disease Modelling at the Institute for Infection Prevention and Hospital Epidemiology, University Medical Center Freiburg, Germany.
Originally from the Netherlands, I studied Biomedical Sciences (BSc) and Biology (MSc) at the University of Amsterdam, before doing my PhD research at the Centre for Infectious Disease Control at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) in combination with the department of Medical Microbiology at the University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, where I received my PhD with distinction on 24 February 2014.
My PhD research focuses on the structure of contact networks formed by patient shared between health-care institutions and their role in the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and healthcare-associated pathogens. After my PhD I continued this work in Groningen and later within the Modernising Medical Microbiology (MMM) group at the Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, UK, researching the design of efficient surveillance schemes for healthcare-associated pathogens based on these networks, as well as the effects of hospitals' network positions on incidence, genetic population structure, and introductions of resistant bacteria in hospitals.
Next to my "regular" research interest, I have worked on numerous pandemic response projects, developing methods to compensate for reporting delays in epidemiological data (so-called nowcasting methods), as well as developing forecasting methods for e.g. ICU bed demand or consumable usage.
Tjibbe Donker