Valentina Costantino

Dr Costantino is a Research Associate for the Biosecurity Program (BSP) at the Kirby Institute for the faculty of Medicine at UNSW Sydney. She has a Mathematics background and holds an Mphil from School of Population Health, UNSW, Sydney, in modelling of infectious diseases. She completed her PhD candidature in January 2022 at the Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney. Her work focusses on the use of mathematical modelling for the optimization of pharmaceutical and not pharmaceutical interventions in an outbreak response. She uses mathematical modelling for epidemic forecasting, preparedness and control. She contributed to the policy control for COVID-19 in Australia, with the first study showing the effectiveness of Australia international borders closure on cases control. She investigated the effectiveness of influenza vaccination uptake with immunity waning. Her research field expended on preparedness and response for bioterror attacks, with a particular focus on smallpox and bacillus anthracis release. Her research fields include modelling of infectious diseases, estimation of intervention effectiveness, risks and data analyses, using statistical methods (SPSS, SAS) and analytical methods (Matlab, R).