I have worked at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine for over 25 years, firstly in research and subsequently as an educator part-time. I am the Senior Epidemiologist at Lifebit Biotech, applying state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence to early detection of health threats, and enabling federated analysis of health and genomic data. I received my undergraduate degree in Biology at Imperial College and my doctorate in malaria epidemiology (including molecular biology, mathematical modelling and statistics) at the University of Oxford, funded by a Wellcome Trust scholarship.
Affiliations
Centres
Teaching
I have been teaching at LSHTM since 1998 on the in-house malaria and disease control modules Masters modules and also as a PhD supervisor, statistical advisor, and examiner until 2008. I co-developed the first distance-learning module on Epidemiology of Communicable Disease in 2000, and since 2010 have been tutoring and examining for Epidemiology 101 on the distance-learning Masters in Public Health. I co-wrote the 2nd edition and solo wrote the 3rd edition textbook “Introduction to Epidemiology” in 2017, which forms the basis of the teaching material for the module. I continue to lead the teaching on this module (PHM101).
Research
I joined LSHTM in 1997 to undertake analyses on Polio vaccination strategies for the Polio Eradication Programme, and on BCG vaccination for the World Health Organization (WHO) under the guidance of Professor Paul Fine. Subsequently I moved to work on malaria epidemiology in Surat, India and Tanzania as part of the Department for International Development (DfID) funded Malaria Knowledge Programme and later the TARGETS Communicable Disease Consortium, and as part of the Medical Research Council (MRC) funded Malaria Centre. I provided statistical advice and support on several vector control intervention projects including trials of insecticide-treated nets and other insecticide-impregnated materials in India, Tanzania, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan, intermittent preventive treatment in infants (IPTi) in Ghana and Tanzania, and insect repellents in China and Laos. I received funding from the WHO to estimate the global burden of malaria in children and then to study age-patterns of malaria. I received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) to assess the Applicability of IPTi, and developed a web-based decision-support tool to guide national and sub-national policymakers in sub-Saharan Africa (ipti.lshtm.ac.uk). I have not undertaken any research since 2012, when I shifted my focus to teaching.