Curriculum vitae

🎓 Education

• 2019 - 2023: PhD Spatio-temporal Epidemiology, Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

  • Thesis title: Spatial Modelling of Emerging Infectious Diseases: Quantifying the Role of Climate, Cities and Connectivity on Dengue Expansion in Brazil

• 2017 - present: Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)

• 2013 - 2014: MSc Statistics (Distinction), Department of Statistics and Mathematics, Lancaster University

  • Thesis title: Investigating malaria incidence in the Brazilian Amazon

• 2010 - 2013: BSc Mathematics with Statistics (First), Department of Statistics and Mathematics, Lancaster University

👩‍🏫 Teaching experience

2019 - present: Statistical and R coding educator

Self-employed

• Written and delivered bespoke short courses to non-statisticians from a variety of backgrounds and experience levels.
• Commissioned to deliver training to a range of UK Government departments, including the Ministry of Justice, Department for Levelling Up, Communities, and Housing, Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, Department for Education, and Department for Work and Pensions.
• Received consistent excellent feedback regarding the accessible and engaging way in which courses are designed.
• Produced e-learning content for Equations of Disease, including a free micro-course on Inferential Statistics, and a longer Introduction to Statistics course

December 2022 - June 2023: Educational content developer

Centre for Applied Statistics Courses, Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, UCL

• Developed online course content for the short course “Introduction to Dealing with Missing Data”, including pre-recorded lectures, interactive assessments, and detailed course notes.
• Ensured that all content is accessible, inclusive and engaging for non-statisticians from any background.

January 2019 - December 2022: PhD in Spatio-temporal epidemiology

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

• Facilitated Basic Maths seminars offered to MSc students at LSHTM in 2019 (in person) and 2020/2021 (online).
• Developed online teaching materials, including pre-recorded lectures and worksheets, for the Basic Maths module in 2020.
• Co-supervised an MSc student dissertation in which the student achieved the highest possible grade and won an award for the best thesis of their cohort.
• Assisted in designing the Modelling Infectious Disease Risk in a Changing Climate short course which was due to be delivered at LSHTM. This has been postponed due to COVID-19 restrictions.

September 2015 – December 2018: Teaching Fellow

Centre for Applied Statistics Courses, Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, UCL

• Head of the Health Research Methods module offered to medical students undertaking an iBSc in Paediatrics and Child Health.
• Head of the Research Methods and Evidence in Global Health module offered to students undertaking an MSc in Global Health and Development.
• Wrote and taught seven short course for the Centre for Applied Statistics Courses to non-statisticians from a range of backgrounds and abilities:
  • Introduction to Research Methods and Statistics
  • Introduction to Regression Analysis
  • Introduction to Logistic Regression
  • Introduction to Poisson Regression
  • Introduction to SPSS
  • Introduction to Survival/Time-to-Event Data Analysis
  • Introduction to Dealing with Missing Data)
• Delivered the Research Methods and Statistics module to MSc and MRes students within the UCL Institute of Child Health
• Heavily involved in the expansion of the Centre for Applied Statistics Courses including designing, organising and running the first summer schools and the first evening courses offered by the Centre in 2017.

📈 Research

January 2019 - December 2022: PhD in Spatio-temporal epidemiology

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

• Developed and applied a novel statistical modelling framework that allows for the inclusion of multiple sources of spatial connectivity (for example, similarities between close observations and human movement) and quantifies the relative contribution of each source.
• Applied novel and existing spatial statistical models to epidemiological data to explore the drivers of dengue re-emergence and expansion in Brazil. Used a variety of Bayesian approaches to implement models, including integrated nested Laplace approximations, Markov chain Monte Carlo methods, and empirical Bayesian approaches via generalised additive models.
• Developed a deep understanding of spatial and temporal statistical modelling approaches by conducting a systematic review of the field. Produced a training document as a technical appendix to this peer-reviewed publication aiming to explain these spatial models to non-statistical audiences.
• Obtained and cleaned epidemiological, environmental, and demographic data from various sources. Created detailed, annotated R script files to reproduce this process.
• Created clear data visualisations, such as maps, tables and graphs, within R to explain complex statistical analysis to non-technical audiences. An example of annotated code used to produce these can be found in the publication list below.
• Collaborated with colleagues in Brazil (based at Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, and Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Vítoria) to ensure the statistical analysis was relevant to public health requirements within Brazil and include their knowledge of the study area within the model framework.
• Former head of the Statistics Helpdesk which provides free statistical guidance to PhD students within LSHTM.

September 2015 – December 2018: Teaching Fellow

Centre for Applied Statistics Courses, Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, UCL

• Provided statistical consultancy to clinicians based at Great Ormond Street Hospital and other departments within UCL.

September 2014 – September 2015: Statistician

Phastar, London

• Researched missing data methods, particularly in relation to addiction studies. Provided guidance on how to improve clinical studies and compared different analysis methods.
• Reviewed statistical analysis plans and produced statistical output such as analytical tables for clinical trials.

June 2014 – September 2014: MSc Dissertation

Lancaster University

• Undertook a dissertation project Investigating Malaria Incidence in the Brazilian Amazon which aimed to model spatial and temporal variations in malaria incidence within the Brazilian Amazon.
• Obtained and cleaned data from the Brazilian System of Epidemiologic Surveillance of Malaria (SIVEP-Malaria) and municipal health reports.
• Compared a variety of spatio-temporal statistical modelling approached and produced data visualisations to support the findings.

📢 Invited talks and presentations

American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene annual meeting, October 2022, Seattle, USA, poster presentation: “The contribution of human movement around an urban network to the expansion of the dengue transmission zone in Brazil”

Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, September 2022, Vitória, Brazil, invited seminar: “Spatial modelling of emerging infectious diseases: quantifying the role of climate, cities and connectivity on dengue expansion in Brazil”

Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ), September 2022, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, invited seminar: “Spatial modelling of emerging infectious diseases: quantifying the role of climate, cities and connectivity on dengue expansion in Brazil”

Barcelona Supercomputing Centre, June 2022, Barcelona, Spain, invited seminar: “A Bayesian modelling framework to quantify multiple sources of spatial variation for disease mapping”

Asia dengue summit 2022: climate change, dengue and global health resilience, June 2022, online, invited presentation: “Quantifying the impact of climate change and human movement on the expansion of the dengue transmission zone in Brazil”

World malaria day 2022: climate change and vector-borne disease, LSHTM, April 2022, online, invited presentation: “Exploring the contribution of climate change and connectivity to the erosion of dengue transmission barriers in Brazil”

Barcelona Supercomputing Center, March 2022, Barcelona, Spain, invited talk: “Using Bayesian spatial models to understand the contribution of climate change and human movement on the expansion of dengue in Brazil”

Planetary Health and Infectious Disease group meeting, LSHTM, December 2021, online, invited seminar: “Empirical Bayesian spatial models with mgcv”

The Cyprus Institute, October 2021, Nicosia, Cyprus, invited talk: “The role of climate, cities, and connectivity in the transmission of dengue in Brazil”

Models of Infectious Disease Agency Study (MIDAS) network annual meeting, May 2021, online, scientific discussion session organiser and lead: “Spatial connectivity and infectious disease modelling”

Planetary Health Association annual meeting, April 2021, online, oral and poster presentation: “Exploring the impact of climate change, connectivity, and socio-economic factors on the expansion of dengue fever in 21st century Brazil”

LSHTM Centre of Planetary Health and Climate Change 3 minute thesis competition, April 2021, online.

Climate et Impacts [Climate and impacts] conference, November 2020, online, oral presentation: “The role of climate change, cities and connectivity in dengue fever expansion in 21st century in Brazil”

American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene virtual annual meeting, November 2020, online, poster presentation: “Environmental and socio-economic drivers of dengue fever expansion in 21st century Brazil”

Developing Statistics, April 2020, Lancaster, UK, oral presentation: “Spatial modelling of mosquito-borne diseases: a systematic review of data and methods used to inform spatial connectivity” (invited but cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions)

Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, March 2020, Vítoria, Brazil, invited talk: “Difusão Espacial de Arboviruses no Brasil [Spatial diffusion of arboviruses in Brazil]” (cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions)

Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ), March 2020, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, invited talk: “The role of climate, cities and connectivity on the transmission of dengue in Brazil”

GEOMED conference, August 2019, Glasgow, UK, poster presentation: “The role of climate, cities and connectivity in the spread of mosquito-borne diseases in Brazil”

International Conference of Teaching Statistics, July 2018, Kyoto, Japan, oral presentation: “A Statistics Module that Interactively Engages Undergraduate Medical Students”

International Conference of Teaching Statistics, July 2018, Kyoto, Japan, organiser and lead of special interest group: “Short courses for non-statisticians in the workplace”

IDEAR Early Career Training Programme, April 2018, London, UK, short course title: “Introduction to Dealing with Missing Data”

Introduction to Survival Analysis, June 2017, West Bromwich, UK, invited to deliver short course to NHS Midlands and Lancashire Strategy Unit

Lung in Childhood: Research Methodology, Medicolegal, and Imaging Training Programme, June 2017, London, UK, short course title: “Medical Statistics”

Egypt Knowledge Bank Initiative, April 2017, Cairo, Egypt, short course title: “Research Design and Methodology”

Australian Conference of Teaching Statistics, December 2016, Canberra, Australia, presentation title: “Comparing methods used to teach regression analysis to non-statisticians”

PSI Annual Conference, May 2015 London, UK, poster title: “Comparing missing data methods used to analyse HbA1c”

🏆 Awards

Winner of the LSHTM PhD Poster day prize, 2022

Winner of the LSHTM Centre of Planetary Health and Climate Change 3 minute thesis competition, 2021

Awarded the best oral presentation prize at the Climat et impacts [Climate and impacts] conference (€750), 2020

Awarded the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) studentship for the MSc in Statistics in Lancaster University (£13,726), 2013

Awarded a student scholarship at Lancaster University for high achievement in A-level results (£3,000), 2010