William Hart

I am currently working towards a DPhil in mathematics, supervised by Robin Thompson and Philip Maini. Previously, I was an undergraduate at LMH from 2014-2018.

My research involves mathematical modelling of infectious disease epidemics at different scales. In particular, I am interested in the interface between epidemic dynamics at the host-scale (i.e. the progression of infection through each infected individual) and the population-scale (i.e. the spread of the pathogen through a population). One important quantity for linking these two scales is the generation time distribution, which describes the relative infectiousness of an infected host at each time since infection. Much of my recent research has involved estimating the generation time distribution for COVID-19.

I am teaching a number of (mostly) applied options in the 1st and 2nd years of the Mathematics course.

Full list of courses:

Prelims: Geometry, Fourier Series and PDEs
Part A: Differential Equations 1, Differential Equations 2, Numerical Analysis, Fluids and Waves, Integral Transforms, Calculus of Variations, Mathematical Modelling in Biology

1. Kaye AR, Hart WS, Bromiley J, Iwami S, Thompson RN. A direct comparison of methods for assessing the threat from emerging infectious diseases in seasonally varying environments. J Theor Biol 548: 111195, 2022. (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtbi.2022.111195)
2. Hart WS, Miller E, Andrews NJ, Waight P, Maini PK, Funk S, Thompson RN. Generation time of the alpha and delta SARS-CoV-2 variants: an epidemiological analysis. Lancet Infect Dis 22: 603-610, 2022. (https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00001-9)
3. Hart WS, Abbott S, Endo A, Hellewell J, Miller E, Andrews NJ, Maini PK, Funk S, Thompson RN. Inference of the SARS-CoV-2 generation time using UK household data. eLife 11: e70767, 2022. (https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.70767)
4. Hart WS, Maini PK, Thompson RN. High infectiousness immediately before COVID-19 symptom onset highlights the importance of continued contact tracing. eLife 10: e65534, 2021. (https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.65534)
5. Thompson RN et al. Key questions for modelling COVID-19 exit strategies. Proc Roy Soc B 287: 20201405, 2020. (https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1405)
6. Hart WS, Maini PK, Yates CA, Thompson RN. A theoretical framework for transitioning from patient-level to population-scale epidemiological dynamics: influenza A as a case study. J R Soc Interface 17: 20200230, 2020. (https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2020.0230)
7. Hart WS, Hochfilzer L, Cunniffe NJ, Lee H, Nishiura H, Thompson RN. Accurate forecasts of the effectiveness of interventions against Ebola may require models that account for variations in symptoms during infection. Epidemics 29: 100371, 2019. (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epidem.2019.100371)
8. Thompson RN, Hart WS. Effect of confusing symptoms and infectiousness on forecasting and control of Ebola outbreaks. Clin Infect Dis 67: 1472-1474, 2018. (https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciy248)