About Me

I'm the Sir Henry Wellcome Research Fellow in Mathematical Modelling and Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis (Imperial College London) where my research focusses on the detectability, dynamics and control of pathogens with pandemic potential; understanding how inequity influences where and how the impacts of infectious disease outbreaks are felt most acutely; and the design of robust, sensitive and accurate surveillance systems to prevent outbreaks becoming pandemics.

​

I graduated top of my class with a Double First BA in Biological Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge in 2015, top of my class with Distinction MSc Infectious Disease Epidemiology from Imperial College London in 2017, and received my PhD in 2022 from Imperial College where I worked on understanding patterns of seasonality in malaria transmission and its implication for control efforts until SARS-CoV-2 hit, after which I spent my time on COVID-19 response work. 

​

My research is grounded in a belief that all people (present and future) deserve to live healthy lives free from preventable disease; and focuses on pursuing scientific questions of public health relevance that support this goal. My research centres around Epidemiology, Emergencies and Equity. As an epidemiologist, I use state-of-the-art mathematical models to uncover new insights about how and why pathogens spread through populations; and then use these insights to answer questions of immediate relevance during acute public health emergencies. Underlying much of my work is a focus on equity - specifically how the inequitable distribution of resources (whether that be vaccines, ventilators or vital registration systems) impedes our ability to effectively identify and control infectious disease outbreaks. Recently, a lot of my work has been focussed on surveillance - specifically, how to design robust and comprehensive systems to facilitate identification, characterisation and containment of emerging pathogens before they cause a global pandemic; and in doing so, hopefully prevent acute public health emergencies occurring in the first place. 

​

To date, my work has been published in Nature, Science and The Lancet (amongst others), been cited over 15,000 times, and (most importantly) has supported policymakers (including the UK Government and WHO amongst others) in making critical, often time-sensitive decisions around how best to respond to public health crises. 

 

I'm also a Field Epidemiologist - previously with the WHO (where I deployed to Democratic Republic of Congo during the 2018-2020 Ebola Outbreak), and more recently with the UK's Public Health Rapid Support Team (UK-PHRST).