CHARLES MACAL
Argonne National Laboratory
and University of Chicago

 Epidemiology, Supercomputers,
and Stopping the
ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE
in Chicago


Tuesday, November 5, 2019
5:30 - 8:30 pm
The Lounge at Iwan Ries
19 South Wabash Av.

Cocktails at 5:30, with the presentation at 6:00 for about thirty minutes, followed by Q&A and general cocktail conversation. 
Reservations with EventBrite Event Support are required.
(Select the green "Tickets" link.)
From the Chicago Tribune, Ben Meyerson reporting.
Chicago would be overtaken by a zombie invasion in 60 days. That’s according to a team of scientists at Argonne National Laboratory, who came to the conclusion using a high-powered computer model that’s normally used for much more serious work on infectious diseases. “The people of Chicago could suffer dire consequences at the hands of a zombie invasion,” said Chick Macal, senior systems engineer in Argonne’s Global Security Sciences Division. “No part of the city would be spared.”

While the scenario is obviously fictional, Macal and his colleagues on the Argonne Infectious Disease Modeling Team calculated the timeline by running the numbers through an intricately designed system that was originally created to analyze the spread of real diseases. The lab began working on the project about a year ago, inspired by Halloween and "The Walking Dead."
Charles Macal is recognized globally as a leader in computer simulation. He develops computer models for infectious diseases, the electric power grid, the critical materials markets, environmental sustainability, technology adoption, and combatting the worldwide spread of misinformation.  In his spare time, Dr. Macal is an internationally recognized zombie scientist and has done internationally recognized, ground-breaking work developing effective interventions to stop the coming Zombie Apocalypse Chicago. He holds Senior appointments at the University of Chicago Consortium for Advanced Science and Engineering, and the Northwestern-Argonne Institute for Science and Engineering.

Please join the Cigar Society next Tuesday when Dr. Macal will tell us about how Argonne National Laboratory, here in Illinois, is a building a supercomputer that, when it is completed, will be the most powerful computer in the world. He will talk about his work in computer-simulated epidemiology and disaster-recovery studies. And, on the heels of Halloween, he'll talk about a computer simulation of a fictional epidemic that has brought wide attention to the research he and others are doing here at Argonne Labs and the University of Chicago.

Professor Macal writes:

"Computational advances on supercomputers at Argonne National Laboratory are making it possible to develop agent-based models in a variety of new application areas, ranging from understanding supply chains and block chains; to forecasting possible outcomes in consumer goods, financial and critical materials markets; to predicting the spread of disease and pandemics, to understanding the effects of gene editing on a population, to identifying the factors responsible for the spread of misinformation, to even explaining how to turn back the coming Zombie Apocalypse. Progress suggests that agent-based modeling could have far-reaching effects on the way that businesses use computer models to support decision-making and how researchers use models as electronic laboratories to identify promising research directions. This talk describes emerging developments in computer modeling and simulation and high performance computing that will allow us to look into the future with undaunted precision. "

Charles “Chick” Macal, PhD, PE, is the Group Leader for Social, Behavioral & Decision Sciences at Argonne National Laboratory and Chief Scientist of Argonne’s Resilient Infrastructure Initiative. In this role, he leads a team of interdisciplinary researchers developing new computational models and simulations to address the most important problems facing our society on some of the world’s most powerful computers.

Chick is recognized globally as a leader in the field of agent-based modeling and computer simulation, in which he uses computers to model artificial societies. He is currently engaged in developing innovative computer simulation models in the areas of infectious diseases, the electric power grid, critical materials markets, environmental sustainability, technology adoption, and combatting the spread of misinformation. Chick is also an internationally recognized zombie scientist and has done internationally recognized, ground-breaking work on developing effective interventions to stop the coming Zombie Apocalypse Chicago. He holds Senior appointments at the University of Chicago Consortium for Advanced Science and Engineering (CASE), and the Northwestern-Argonne Institute for Science and Engineering.

Chick received a PhD in Industrial Engineering & Management Sciences from Northwestern University and holds an MS in Industrial Engineering and a BS in Engineering Sciences from Purdue University. He is a registered professional engineer in the State of Illinois and is a senior member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Society for Computer Simulation International (SCSI), and the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). Chick serves on the editorial boards of several computer modeling and simulation publications.

*   *   *

Computer Simulations Can Help Prepare Us for a Zombie Apocalypse—and Much More.  BuiltIn, 9-25-2019.

Using Complex Adaptive Systems Thinking to Understand Community Interdependencies. Charles Macal, FEMA Prep Talk, 4-15-2019.

Department of Energy Secretary recognizes Argonne scientists’ work to fight Ebola, cancer. DOE Secretary's Award, 4-18-2017.

 Doomsday Squad at Argonne National Laboratory Prepares for Chaos.  Chicago Tonight, WTTW Chicago, 4-25-2017.

The Doomsday Squad. WGN-TV, 4-5-2017.

*   *   *

The trend today is vampires, zombies, angels, all the stuff that puts me right to sleep. It's too bad because it's so much less interesting than the diversity of stories you can tell with science.
  ---Seth MacFarlane

Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm.
  ---Robert Louis Stevenson

What happens if a big asteroid hits Earth? Judging from realistic simulations involving a sledge hammer and a common laboratory frog, we can assume it will be pretty bad.
  ---Dave Barry







About the Cigar Society of Chicago

ONE OF THE OLDEST AND greatest traditions of the city clubs of Chicago is the discussion of intellectual, social, legal, artistic, historical, scientific, musical, theatrical, and philosophical issues in the company of educated, bright, and appropriately provocative individuals, all under the beneficent influence of substantial amounts of tobacco and spirits.  The Cigar Society of Chicago embraces this tradition and extends it with its Informal Smokers, University Series lectures, and Cigar Society Dinners, in which cigars, and from time to time pipes and cigarettes, appear as an important component of our version of the classical symposium.  To be included in the Cigar Society's mailing list, write to the secretary at curtis.tuckey@logicophilosophicus.org.