# PETAL ## Posts - [Hello world!](https://whittakerlab.com/hello-world/): Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing! ## Pages - [Join us](https://whittakerlab.com/join-us/): Joining PETAL We are always eager to hear from curious, collaborative scientists who share our commitment to pandemic preparedness.Below you’ll find the best routes into the lab: Prospective PhD Students We welcome graduate students from a number of different UC Berkeley Graduate Programs. Currently, these include: Feel free to reach out (cwhittaker@berkeley.edu) to discuss prospective grad school applications – I’m always happy to chat and discuss the research we’re doing, which grad school programs might make sense for you etc. When you do, please send over a copy of your CV, description of your research interests, as well as any […] - [Team](https://whittakerlab.com/team/): Meet Our Team Dr. Charles Whittaker, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology School of Public Health University of California, Berkeley  cwhittaker@berkeley.edu Jacob Stapley, PhD Postdoctoral Research Associate Department of Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology School of Public Health University of California, Berkeley  cwhittaker@berkeley.edu Geetha Jeyapragasan, M.Sc. PhD Student Computational Precision Health Graduate Group School of Public Health University of California, Berkeley  geethaj@berkeley.edu  Want to join us? PETAL is always looking for talented and curious scientists that share our mission. See our Join Us section for further details! - [Research](https://whittakerlab.com/research/): Research The Pandemic and Epidemic Threat Analytics Lab (PETAL) uses computational epidemiology to strengthen pandemic preparedness and outbreak response. Specifically, our work advances along two tightly linked fronts. First, fundamental research integrates viral phylodynamics, ecological data, and transmission modeling to illuminate how pathogens emerge, evolve, and spread through populations. Building on this, applied modeling then translates those insights into quantitative decision support for next-generation public health technologies. These include metagenomic surveillance networks, broad-spectrum countermeasures, and indoor air disinfection, all designed to help decision-makers determine when, where, and how emerging threats can be detected and contained. Crucially, we do all of […] - [Home](https://whittakerlab.com/): We are PETAL Pandemic and Epidemic Threat Analysis Lab PETAL utilises cutting-edge computational modelling to explore how infectious diseases spread and to enhance preparedness and response strategies for public health emergencies. Computational epidemiology to support pandemic preparedness and outbreak response Led by Dr Charles Whittaker, the Pandemic and Epidemic Threat Analysis Lab (PETAL) at UC Berkeley is an interdisciplinary research group dedicated to reducing pandemic risks by turning cutting-edge computational science into actionable public-health guidance. We use advanced analytical approaches spanning epidemiological modelling, viral phylodynamics and machine learning to uncover new insights into how pathogens spread through populations and to […] - [Privacy Policy](https://whittakerlab.com/privacy-policy/): Who we are Our website address is: http://whittakerlab.com. Comments When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection. An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment. Media If you upload images to […] [comment]: # (Generated by Hostinger Tools Plugin)