Fulbright Award Opens Math, Science Vista for Tongen

Fulbright Scholar Dr. Anthony Tongen is preparing to spend the 2012-2013 academic year in Mexico, where he will collaborate on research focusing on dengue virus and also teach.

Tongen, an associate professor of mathematics and statistics, will travel to the University of Colima to work with Dr. Carlos Moises Hernandez Suárez, a research professor at the university in western Mexico. Suárez encouraged Tongen to join him by explaining, "I want to be sure that we both invest our time in something useful to people far beyond writing a model and playing with parameters." 

Dengue virus is spread by mosquitoes and is the leading cause of illness and death in the tropics and subtropics. Most schools start in the middle or end of August, when the number of mosquitoes is close to the maximum. By putting students in classrooms with an abundance of mosquitoes, the number of infections rises rapidly. Tongen and Suárez are interested in the use of mathematics to examine what impact starting school in late September or early October would have on the number of dengue infections. Tongen will also be teaching a sophomore-level course that he has previously taught at JMU called "Computers and Numerical Algorithms." 

To read about more academic accomplishments, check the Madison Scholar website, the online journal of scholarly work at JMU.