I'm an ecologist with interests in global environmental change and its linkages to human, animal and ecosystem health. I investigate the relationships between environmental and social influences on health, focussing on infectious as well as non-communicable disease outcomes, disease vectors and zoonotic hosts. I often try to forecast spatial and temporal patterns of disease risk from local to global scales as a result of global change. I am co-Director of the Centre on Climate Change and Planetary Health at LSHTM. I am also an “MRC Investigator” and lead of the Planetary Health cross-cutting program at the MRC Unit The Gambia @ LSHTM.
Affiliations
Teaching
I am a Module Organiser on the MSc in Climate Change and Planetary Health
Research
My research is focused on human health impacts associated with environmental change (e.g., climate change, land-use change, biodiversity loss) and the benefits to health that can be generated by implementing mutually beneficial solutions to environmental degradation. I have a broad background in ecology and epidemiology, with specific training and expertise in disease ecology, biodiversity, climate and land-use change, and sustainability science. I use mixed methods drawn from social, health and environmental sciences, including spatial and epidemiological modelling, environmental surveys and assessments, household surveys, and laboratory experiments. Currently, I'm involved in work looking at:
- the impacts of large-scale landscape restoration on human health
- climate, weather, and hydrological influences on health (e.g., heat, humidity, rainfall impacts on heat stress and infectious diseases)
- zoonotic disease, spillover, disease emergence and pandemic risks linked to land-use and climatic change
- understanding patterns of human-animal contact across land-change gradients, examining dynamics of zoonotic host-pathogen networks
- pathogen 'pollution' in wildlife
- sustainable and healthy diets, dietary diversity and food systems
- history, evolution and utility of integrated environment health sciences (OneHealth, EcoHealth, Planetary Health)
Selected Publications
