Kepler Prize encourages national scientific production with multidisciplinary characteristics
The Brazilian Society of Applied and Computational Mathematics (SBMAC) announced this Wednesday (26) the winning work of the Johannes Kepler Prize 2024. The article “Optimized delay of the second COVID-19 vaccine dose reduces ICU admissions”, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), was the big winner.
One of the authors of the study is Claudio José Struchiner, Vice-Director of the School of Applied Mathematics at the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV EMAp). Struchiner developed the work alongside Paulo J. S. Silva and Claudia Sagastizábal, from the Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Scientific Computing at the State University of Campinas (IMECC-UNICAMP), and Luis Gustavo Nonato and Tiago Pereira, from the Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Computing at the University of São Paulo (ICMC-USP).
In the paper, published in 2021, the authors developed a mathematical model to identify the optimal delay for the second dose of COVID-19 vaccines, using the hospitalization rate as the main metric. The modeling involved stochastic optimization with probabilistic constraints.
The judging panel was chaired by Maria Soledad Aronna, also from FGV EMAp, and comprised Geraldo Nunes Silva, Liliana Forzani, and Nelson Maculan Filho. According to the group, the article was chosen because it was a pioneering work in the field at the time, combining expertise from several areas (Mathematics, Computer Science, and Medicine) and contributed valuable and clear information in a timely manner for decision-makers.
The group will be awarded during the 43rd National Congress of Applied and Computational Mathematics (CNMAC), which will be held between September 16th and 20th this year in Porto de Galinhas/PE. In addition to the diploma certified by SBMAC, the authors will receive the amount of R$10 thousand.
The award-winning work stood out among other entries, published between 2019 and 2023, in internationally circulated journals with an editorial board of recognized competence, dedicated to themes that require strong interaction between Mathematics and another branch of scientific knowledge.
More information about the award is available on the Kepler Award page on the SBMAC website.