Prof Helen Weiss
Professor of Epidemiology
United Kingdom
Helen joined the School in 1997, and is Director of the MRC International Statistics & Epidemiology Group. A medical statistician by training, Helen initially studied cancer epidemiology for her DPhil at the University of Oxford, followed by a post-doctoral position at the National Cancer Institute, USA.
Affiliations
Centres
Teaching
Helen co-organises the Advanced Course in Epidemiological Analysis which runs for 2 weeks each September in hybrid format. In 2023, the 56 course participants came from 29 countries. She also teaches on several MSc modules on epidemiology and statistics.
Research
Helen's research focuses on adolescent health, sexual health, HIV infection and mental health in low-income settings. She has collaborated on many observational and intervention studies, including recently studies of interventions to improve uptake of HIV testing, linkage-to-care and adherence particularly among young people in southern Africa. Work on mental health includes randomised trials to evaluate the effectiveness of lay health-worker delivered counselling interventions for depression, anxiety and alcohol use disorders.
Helen is Principal Investigator of the MENISCUS trial to evaluate the impact of a school-based menstrual health intervention in Uganda (funded by the Joint Global Health Trial Scheme), and is a Co-I on a range of adolescent health and mental health related intervention studies.
Helen has a specific interest in capacity strengthening and is PI of a newly-funded MRC International Statistics and Epidemiology Partnership which aims to strengthen and sustain an African-centered network of applied medical statisticians.