- This event has passed.
Live Stream: The Rules of Contagion. Nesta talks to Adam Kucharski.
March 24, 2020 @ 6:30 am - 7:30 pm
“Why do some ideas take off and others fail to spread?
We live in a world that’s more connected than ever before. But even as we see our lives being shaped by the spread of ideas and trends, we sometimes struggle to grasp how it actually works. Outbreaks seem to be driven by randomness and hidden laws, and in order to understand them, we need to start thinking like mathematicians.
In this live stream, epidemiologist Adam Kucharski will be joined by director of Nesta’s Health Lab, Christina Cornwell to reveal how new mathematical approaches are transforming what we know about contagion – from the revolutionary initiatives that helped tackle gun violence in Chicago to the truth behind the spread of fake news. And along the way, they will explore how innovations and emotions can spread through our friendship networks, and what STDs can tell us about banking.
About the speakers
Adam Kucharski is an associate professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, working on global outbreaks such as the Ebola epidemic and the Zika virus. He is a TED fellow and winner of the 2016 Rosalind Franklin Award Lecture and the 2012 Wellcome Trust Science Writing Prize. He has written for the Observer, Financial Times, Scientific American, and New Statesman. He is the author of The Perfect Bet: How Science and Maths Are Taking the Luck Out of Gambling.
As Director, Health Lab, Christina Cornwell leads Nesta’s work helping to develop and grow innovations that create new relationships, networks and technologies that improve health and well being.
Her current areas of focus include Accelerating Ideas, Good Help and social movements, people-powered technology and collective intelligence in health. New strategic areas include early years, ‘The nightingale’.
Christina has worked in and around health and social care for ‘a long time’. Most recently she was Head of Strategy at the Care Quality Commission, but she has also worked in the Department of Health, and in health care services in the UK and Australia.”