NETWORK ANALYSIS WORKSHOP

28th – 30th April, 2010, The University of Sydney, Camden

Professor Michael Ward and Dr Navneet Dhand organised the Workshop that was facilitated by Dr Rob Christley with 25 attendees from all over Australia and New Zealand.

Rob has wide interests in the determinants of health and disease. He is particularly interested in the application of network analysis to the evaluation of population behaviour, including inter-group (farm) contacts and social behaviour within animal groups, and its role in transmission of infectious diseases.

The course introduced the terminology, methods and some of the software available to analyse networks. The workshop was a combination of short lectures, discussions and hands-on analysis. At the end of the workshop participants were able to design and undertake studies appropriate for the collection of network data, and use such data to create network images, describe important features of the network and identify important individuals and subgroups within the network. In addition, and covered aspects of the statistical analysis of network data and the impact of networks on infectious disease dynamics.