Denzel is a first-year Master of Public Health (MPH) student in Epidemiology at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, where he is also pursuing a collaborative specialization in Global Health. Denzel has a background in clinical research at Toronto General Hospital, with a focus on improving the quality of life of people living with chronic diseases and addressing access and outcome inequities. Beyond the classroom, Denzel works with the Canadian Black Scientist Network, enjoys playing soccer and music, and is a member of the University of Toronto Triathlon Club.
His interdisciplinary interests center on working with disease models to advance health equity among marginalized communities.
Dr. Mehmet Nuri Gördük, M.D., Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at Mardin Artuklu University in Türkiye and currently a Visiting Scholar at the Artificial Intelligence and Mathematical Modeling Laboratory (AIMMlab) at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. He is a public health specialist with research interests in infectious disease modeling and epidemiology. His research focuses on developing integrated modeling frameworks to improve outbreak management, optimize healthcare resource allocation, and enhance early warning systems for communicable diseases. He also has substantial field experience as both a physician and a public health administrator in managing and controlling outbreaks of infectious diseases such as COVID-19, tuberculosis, and measles.
Infectious disease modeling, epidemic forecasting, optimization of healthcare resource allocation, early warning systems, intervention modeling, and public health decision support systems.
M Josee Uwanyirigira is a PhD student working on AI-based spatial models for disease dynamics. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Rwanda and a master’s degree in Mathematical Sciences from the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) Rwanda, where she specialized in malaria modeling.
She has worked with the Rwanda Biomedical Center and the Ministry of Health, Rwanda, conducting statistical and predictive analyses to support malaria control and health policy
development. She is passionate about leveraging AI and spatial modeling to contribute to health system strengthening and evidence-based policymaking.
Her research interests lie at the intersection of spatial modeling, artificial intelligence, and public health, with a particular focus on developing data-driven approaches to better understand and predict disease dynamics.