Curriculum vitae
University Education:
• BSc The University of Sheffield, UK, 1987-1990
• PhD “Distribution of macroparasites in naturally-fluctuating host populations”, University of Cambridge, UK, 1990-1994. Supervisor : Prof Bryan T. Grenfell, FRS
Degrees awarded:
• BSc (Special Honours) Zoology and Genetics (Sheffield 1990)
• PhD (Cambridge, 1995)
Career since graduating:
• Upon obtaining my PhD (from which 3 peer-reviewed papers were generated) I had a couple of short Post-Doctoral Research Assistant posts with Bryan Grenfell on the “Development of a theoretical framework to examine the dynamics of Soay sheep on St. Kilda”, and Prof Bruno Gryseels (then of University of Leiden, Leiden, The Netherlands, now Director of the Tropical Institute in Antwerp, Belgium) on the “Analysis of patterns of aggregation in Schistosoma mansoni infections in Burundi”.
• In September 1995, I then moved to the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Gent, Gent, Belgium to work with Prof Jozef Vercruysse for 3 years as a Post-Doctoral Research Assistant, to look at the comparative analysis of patterns of infection of a number of infection systems being worked on in the faculty. This work generated 18 peer-reviewed articles including Trends in Parasitology, Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene on :
• Comparative analysis of patterns of infection of gastrointestinal nematode infections (Ostertagia ostertagi) in untreated and chemoprophylactic-treated cattle in Western Europe;
• Spread of Schistosoma mansoni and S. haematobium infections in the Senegal River Basin. This involved (i) looking at the spread of S. mansoni in the SRB (ii); an important demonstration of the lack of praziquantel resistance in S. mansoni in the area (a concern at the time); (iii) detailed epidemiological examination of S. haematobium infections in the SRB middle valley;
• Pathophysiology and epidemiology of Mecistocirrus digitatus in Philippine cattle, and epidemiology of S. mattheei in Zambian cattle;
• Diagnosis of larval cyathostomiasis in horses.
- I then moved within Belgium to work as a Post-doctoral Research Associate for 18 months with Prof. Debarati Guha-Sapir, Centre for Research into the Epidemiology of Disasters, Ecole de Santé Publique, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium, on the impact of natural and man-made disasters in the developing world. In particular, I looked at the interactions between primary health care, individual health and diseases, as well as estimating the risk of disease outbreaks in vulnerable parts of the world.
- In January 2000, I came back to the UK and moved to the University of Edinburgh to undertake what became 2 Wellcome Trust Post-doctoral Research Assistant posts with Prof. Mark Woolhouse.
• The first was as a statistical modeller on the Wellcome Trust’s International Partnership Research Award in Veterinary Epidemiology which looked at the epidemiological relationships (spatiotemporal distributions, molecular epidemiology and persistence of populations at different spatial scales) between Enterobacteriaceae in different hosts and host populations. This work has to date generated 15 peer-reviewed articles, including Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy and Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
• I then moved phyla again to work on a the characterisation demographic determinants of infectious disease spread and identification of key epidemiological patterns in foot-and-mouth disease. This FMD work has to date generated 11 peer-review articles including Nature, Science, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences.
- In December 2005 I took up a Lectureship in Veterinary Clinical Epidemiology, in Veterinary Clinical Studies Division, Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh, with a promotion to Senior Lecturer in August 2007.
• While continuing my work on foot-and-mouth and Enterobactericeae, my major focus has been on the facilation of clinical research work by working closely with colleagues in providing both support and the statistical analysis for a wide range of diseases and conditions of veterinary importance, from feline cardiology and equine laminitis. This has helped result in over 60 peer-reviewed articles produced by colleagues, 43 of which I am a co-author, including Vaccine, Pain, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences and many of the various Veterinary Journals. In addition, I have provided both experimental design and statistical analysis advice and extensive support to most of the R(D)SVS PhD students and clinical residents.