Charlotte Watts MSc PhD

Professor , Social and Mathematical Epidemiology

Charlotte Watts is Sigrid Rausing Professor in Gender, Violence and Health Head of the Social and Mathematical Epidemiology Group in the Department of Global Health and Development, and research director of the DFID funded STRIVE Structural HIV drivers Research Programme Consortium. Originally trained as a mathematician, with further training in epidemiology, economics and social science methods, she has more than fifteen years experience in international HIV and violence research, and brings a strong multi-disciplinary perspective to the complex challenge of addressing HIV and violence against women.  

Charlotte is an internationally recognised expert in these areas, with more than 100 publications in peer reviewed journals. She has held several senior research and advisory positions, including acting as Core Research Team Member for the WHO multi-country study on women's health and domestic violence, Chair of the Expert Working Group to Assess the Global Burden of Inter-Personal Violence, Advisor to the UK Prevalence Study on the Mistreatment and Abuse of Older People, and Chair of the Public Health Benefits Working Group of the Rockefeller Foundation Microbicide Initiative. She has also served on WHO and UNAIDS Expert Consultations on HIV, violence against women, and on microbicides.

She is a member of the Peer Review Board for the UK Economic and Social Research Council, and a board member for the journal Reproductive Health Matters.

 

Affiliation

Teaching

Charlotte organises the Global Health Lecture Series at LSHTM, teaches on the Control of Infectious Diseases (CIDS) MSc, and is a member of the CIDS exam board. She will also lead a new one week course on Current Approaches to Gender Based Violence Research, that will first be offered in April 2012.

Research

Much of my research aims to provide evidence on how to reduce women's vulnerability to HIV and to violence, and address the structural forces that help shape their vulnerability. My research draws on my multi-disciplinary background and the expertise of researchers in the Social and Mathematical Epidemiology Group, with a focus on bringing together the appropriate disciplines and research expertise to conduct rigorous research that can be used to inform change. 

My current research projects span many aspects of violence and HIV, and include randomised controlled trials of community focused violence and HIV prevention programmes in Uganda and Cote DIvoire, global assessments of the health burden of interpersonal violence, mathematical modelling of HIV and rape in conflict affected settings, economic evaulations of the integrated delivery of HIV and reproductive health services in Kenya, Swaziland and Malawi, and modelling analyses of the potential impact and optimal introduction strategies for new female initiated HIV prevention technologies, such as microbicides. 

More information about this research is available on the Social and Mathematical Epidemiology Group Website (http://same.lshtm.ac.uk/).

 

Research areas

  • HIV/AIDS
  • Public health

Disciplines

  • Epidemiology
  • Modelling
  • Sociology

Other interests

  • Gender
  • Gender Based Violence
  • Microbicides
  • Intimate Partner Violence
  • Social Epidemiology
  • structural drivers
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