People in SBIDER

Academic Staff

Till Bretschneider. My main research interest is to understand principles of self-organisation in the actin cytoskeleton which drives shape changes in animal cells. We combine quantitative image analysis, employing a wide range of machine learning methods, with computational modelling.

Nigel Burroughs. I use a combination of mathematical modelling, model analysis and statistical computation to answer questions in biology and medicine. My main focus is human cell division where I analyse chromosome movements in 3D movies during mitosis and meiosis, but I also work on problems in molecular motors, immunology, cancer and reproduction.

Alice Corbella. I am a Bayesian Statistician, interested in the application of cutting edge computational methods to solve long-standing inferential problems in the analysis of epidemics data.

Orin Courtenay. My research focusses on a range of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) of medical and veterinary importance, in particular leishmaniasis, Chagas Disease and more recently onchocerciasis.

Robert Dallmann. My research is focused on the interplay between the intricate internal timing system significantly modulating most physiological processes, and disease and pharmacotherapy.

Emma Davis. My research interests involve problems in Neglected Tropical Diseases; in particular the use of Xeno-Diagnosis to determine infection prevalence.

Xavier Didelot. My research is focused on the analysis of genomic data in order to improve our understanding of bacterial evolution, epidemiology, ecology and pathogenicity. A key aim is to develop new bioinformatics and statistical methods that can handle the very large amounts of data made available by novel high-throughput sequencing techniques.

Louise Dyson. I am interested in using techniques from mathematics and statistical physics to analyse biological and social systems.

Lukas Eigentler. I am a mathematical biologist who develops and analyses models comprising partial differential equations to describe biological systems, including: pattern formation, biofilms & eco-evolutionary dynamics.

Richard Everitt. My research is in methodology for Bayesian computation, applied to statistical genetics, neuroscience, ecology, weather and climate, spatial statistics, network analysis and signal processing.

Miriam Gifford. I am interested in how plants interact with the environment. The mechanisms that facilitate this interaction are particularly important for plants since they are sessile yet still cope with environmental extremes. From root-soil-rhizosphere interactions, to circadian-shaping of nodulation, our work investigates a number of plant-nitrogen interactions.

Erin Gorsich. I am a disease ecologist with broad interests in infection dynamics, wildlife health, and conservation.

Matt Keeling (SBIDER Director). I am interested in epidemiological modelling and predictions for science-informed policy, using and developing multiple mathematical tools. I have worked on numerous high-impact outbreaks including foot-and-mouth disease in 2001, pandemic influenza (swine-flu) in 2009, COVID-19 in 2020-23 and M-Pox in 2022.

Tom Montenegro-Johnson. I am an interdisciplinary mathematician exploring complex, interacting systems—ranging from the mathematics of soft microscale devices to human urban mobility in extreme weather conditions. My work has always involved strong collaboration with experimental scientists in Chemistry, Biology, Engineering, and more recently collaborators in behavioural science and sustainable development.

Sascha Ott. I mostly work with transcriptomic and epigenetic high-throughput sequencing data sets, but also have a long-standing interest in comparative genomics of non-coding DNA and models of gene regulation.

Stephen Parnell. My research focuses on epidemiological modelling in natural and managed plant communities. Practical applications include the optimisation of surveillance and control strategies, and better understanding of stakeholder behaviour for improved disease control.

David Rand. Systems Biology. Regulatory and signalling systems in cells. Information and decision-making in cells and populations. Circadian clocks. Cancer. Chronotherapy for health. Developmental dynamics and singularity theory. Dynamical systems.

Magnus Richardson. I am a theoretical neuroscientist studying the biophysics underlying computation in the nervous system.

Isty Rysava. I am a quantitative ecologist studying environmental and evolutionary drivers of disease dynamics. I’m particularly interested in linking within-host processes with distribution and movement behaviour of the host species in the context of spatiotemporally heterogeneous environments.

Gareth Roberts. I am interested in Computational Statistics, particularly MCMC, particle filtering, Monte Carlo likelihood; and Stochastic processes, especially stability theory for Markov chains, Stochastic Differential Equations.

Kat Rock. I am a mathematical epidemiologist interested in vector-borne transmission and neglected tropical diseases, in particular African sleeping sickness.

Simon Spencer. I am a Bayesian statistician working on applied problems in epidemiology and analytical science. In particular, I work on fitting infectious disease transmission models to data, especially for Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Albane Thery. I study how microorganisms, like bacteria and plankton, adapt and move in complex biological environments – from multispecies marine ecosystems to oral biofilms.

Mike Tildesley. I am an infectious disease modeller working on a range of livestock, zoonotic and human diseases. I am particularly interested in developing cost effective control policies for use in emerging outbreaks and have active projects on foot-and-mouth disease, highly pathogenic avian influenza and rabies, in close collaboration with policy makers in the UK and other countries around the world.

Yulia Timofeeva. The main area of my research is focussed on understanding cellular signalling mechanisms using mathematical/computational modelling.

David Wood. Dynamical systems, bifurcations with symmetry, applications to biology and industry. I have dabbled in epidemiology in the past but a main interest of mine is the modelling of neuronal networks, in particular central pattern generators of animals for the generation of gait patterns used for locomotion (with insects being my favoured focus).

Associate Members

Radu Cimpeanu. My work on biological systems spans from microfluidics (mixing and drug delivery) to alternative protein growth and IVF technology design.

Bärbel Finkenstädt Rand. My area of research is at the interface between statistics and life sciences where I am interested in developing scientific models alongside Bayesian statistical methodologies that allow us to infer these from (increasingly large) data sets.

Angela Noufaily. I have methodological and applied expertise in the fields of randomized controlled trials, machine learning, survival analysis and outbreak detection.

Massimiliano Tamborrino. I am interested in stochastic modelling and statistical inference in neuroscience (for single and neural network dynamics) and biology, combining mathematical, numerical and statistical methods.

Craig Thompson. I investigate how the immune system responds to viral infection and how viruses evolve to evade immunity in order to develop better vaccines.

Dan Todkill. I hold a joint appointment with UKHSA, and focus on quantitative methods, data analysis and forecasting in public health.