Akshaya Annapragada

 

Akshaya is an undergraduate at Harvard College studying Applied Mathematics with application in Biomedical Engineering, and pursuing a secondary field in Global Health and Health Policy. Her research employs mathematical modeling, stochastic simulations, and big-data analysis to understand how wildlife consumption and bushmeat hunting impact human health, nutrition and livelihoods. Her current projects include predictive modeling to inform policy for poultry vaccination programs, and population modeling of the impact of bushmeat hunting on tenrec populations in Madagascar. Akshaya is excited about the potential for planetary health research to have tangible, positive impacts for local communities.

Akshaya received one of the inaugural Planetary Health Undergraduate Scholars Fellowships, funded by the Henry David Thoreau Foundation in 2017, and is currently an Undergraduate Research Scholar in partnership with the Institute of Quantitative Social Science at Harvard. She received the Detur Book Prize from Harvard College in 2017, for outstanding academic success in the first year of college.

Akshaya’s academic publications may be found here, and her work has been featured on the National Geographic Blog, and profiled by the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Science. She also serves as the Managing Editor and a Senior Staff Writer at the Harvard Political Review.