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Professor, NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health
Vice Dean (Research), NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health

Dr Alex Cook is a Professor in the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health (SSHSPH) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) where he is also the Vice Dean (Research). He works on infectious disease modelling and statistics, including dengue, COVID-19, influenza and other respiratory pathogens, and on population modelling to assess the effect of evolving demographics on non-communicable diseases such as diabetes. His multidisciplinary team brings together researchers from the fields of statistics, computational biology, computer engineering, mathematics, geography and environmental sciences.

Research by the Cook lab is often in close collaboration with government agencies. Examples of the contribution of his work to national policy making include:

1. His team’s projections of the future burden of diabetes in Singapore was cited in the Committee of Supply as the Minister of Health declared ‘war’ on diabetes;
2. His team’s evaluation of the impact of school closure on hand, foot and mouth disease transmission support’s the government’s relaxation of the policy;
3. His close collaboration with the National Environment Agency has led to the development of a real-time dengue forecasting algorithm that is routinely used as part of Singapore’s vector control programme.