Rate My Professor Tamer Oraby

Tamer Oraby is an Associate Professor in the School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, where he contributes to the field of Mathematics through his teaching and research. He received his PhD in Mathematical Sciences from the University of Cincinnati in 2008, with a dissertation titled 'Spectra of random block matrices and products of random matrices.' Earlier, he earned an MSc in Mathematical Statistics from Cairo University in 2002 and a BSc in Mathematical Statistics from the same institution in 1997. His professional career encompasses extensive teaching and research roles. Since September 2014, he has been at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, promoted to Associate Professor in September 2020. Previously, he served as Assistant Professor-Educator at the University of Cincinnati (2013-2014), Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Guelph (2012-2013) and University of Ottawa (2008-2012), Visiting Researcher at the Centre de Recerca en Epidemiologia Ambiental in Barcelona (2010), and teaching assistant/instructor positions at the University of Cincinnati (2003-2008) and Cairo University (1997-2002). Oraby has taught 21 different courses at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, including graduate-level Linear Models, Statistical Learning, Mathematical Statistics, and undergraduate Probability and Statistics, Sampling, and Stochastic Processes.

Oraby's research specializations include infectious disease modeling for diseases such as COVID-19, MERS-CoV, pertussis, measles, mad cow disease, and chronic wasting disease, emphasizing mitigation through vaccination and culling. He utilizes deterministic models (ordinary and fractional differential equations), stochastic approaches (continuous-time Markov chains, multi-type branching processes), behavioral game theory for human responses to control measures, model calibration via maximum likelihood or Bayesian methods, and statistical modeling for environmental and ecological applications. Additional interests cover random matrices, random walks on trees, and numerical solutions to stochastic partial differential equations. Key publications feature 'Bounded rationality alters the dynamics of paediatric immunization acceptance' in Scientific Reports (2015), 'The influence of social norms on the dynamics of vaccinating behaviour for paediatric infectious diseases' in Proceedings of the Royal Society B (2014), 'Assessing the pandemic potential of MERS-CoV' in The Lancet (2013), and multiple articles on chronic wasting disease and bovine spongiform encephalopathy risk management in Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A (2016). He has earned the COS Excellence Award in Mentoring Students (2019), Dean Seed Grant (2016), Faculty Research Council Grant (2016), and other funding supports. Oraby advises master's and undergraduate students on theses and projects related to disease modeling and statistical analysis.