What do I do?

I research a range of topics across ecology and evolution, although this broadly falls into three themes: the evolution of parasite virulence, epidemiological modelling and the development of hybrid frameworks. See below for more information on each of these.

The evolution of parasites

We look at the coevolution of two pathogens in a host, one which is mutualistic and one which is parasitic. We ask under which conditions the mutualist invests more resources into protecting its host, and when will the parasite become more or less parasitic. We are also interested in what effects these changes have on the host that harbours these microbes.

Epidemiological modelling for COVID-19

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, I conducted research on the effect that shielding strategies would have on the overall outcomes of the pandemic, and also investigated the role that NPIs and immunocompromised individuals could have on the emergence of variants.

Development of hybrid frameworks

In my PhD, we developed algorithms designed to simulate reaction-diffusion systems by employing modelling techniques and combining them in an appropriate way. Such approaches are called hybrid methods. I have also worked on taking these ideas and applying them to epidemiological models, allowing us to accurately model an epidemic and explicit within-host processes.

Publications

Tolerance-conferring defensive symbionts and the evolution of parasite virulence
C.A. Smith and B. Ashby
Evolution Letters (2023)
DOI: 10.1093/evlett/qrad015

Non-pharmaceutical interventions and the emergence of pathogen variants
B. Ashby, C.A. Smith and R.N. Thompson
Evolution, Medicine and Public Health (2023)
DOI: 10.1093/emph/eoac043

Antigenic evolution of SARS-CoV-2 in immunocompromised hosts
C.A. Smith and B. Ashby
Evolution, Medicine and Public Health (2023)
DOI: 10.1093/emph/eoac037

Critical weaknesses with shielding strategies for COVID-19
C.A. Smith, B. Ashby and C.A. Yates
PLOS Global Public Health (2022)
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0000298

Incorporating domain growth into hybrid methods for reaction-diffusion systems
C.A. Smith and C.A. Yates
Journal of the Royal Society: Interface (2021)
DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2020.1047

The blending region hybrid framework for the simulation of stochastic reaction–diffusion processes
C.A. Yates, A. George, A. Jordana, C.A. Smith, A.B. Duncan and K.C. Zygalakis
Journal of the Royal Society: Interface (2020)
DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2020.0563

Unbiased on-lattice domain growth
C.A. Smith C. Mailler and C.A. Yates
Physical Review E (2019)
DOI: 10.1103/physreve.100.063307

The auxiliary region method: a hybrid method for coupling PDE-and Brownian-based dynamics for reaction–diffusion systems
C.A. Smith and C.A. Yates
Journal of the Royal Society Open Science (2018)
DOI: 10.1098/rsos.180920

Spatially extended hybrid methods: a review
C.A. Smith and C.A. Yates
Journal of the Royal Society: Interface (2018)
DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2017.0931