Keynote Speakers
Thomas Finnie
Making maths matter: how modelling can shape action for better public health outcomes
Thomas Finnie is UKHSA head of Modelling and Data-Science for Emergency Preparedness Resilience and Response (EPRR) and is expert member of SPI-M. He has supplied advice to decision makers across a diverse range of events including the 2009 and 2020 pandemics, and preparedness for incidents including the 2012 Olympics, Ebola in Africa, Zika, and the accidental and deliberate release of non-transmissible pathogenic agents including those with links to bioterrorism.
Michael Pearce
"With no biology degree or wet lab experience, what does a mathematician reeeaally do in a bioinformatics team?"Michael Pearce is currently a Senior Machine Learning Researcher at NeoChromosome, a subsidiary of Opentrons with its headquarters in New York, in a new bioinformatics team. In 2019, he was awarded a PhD degree in Maths and Complexity Science from the University of Warwick, focusing on Bayesian statistics and optimization, with internships at Google Deepmind in London and Uber AI in San Francisco. After his PhD and prior to his current role, he worked as a machine learning researcher at several startups, including Anyvision (a unicorn face recognition startup in Northern Ireland and Israel) and Zenith AI (a startup aiming to make no-code graphical “drag and drop” ML platform for model creation and deployment). See more details on his website: https://bayesianblog.com/Link opens in a new window
Katie Phillips
KatDoesMaths
Kat is a mathematics Postdoc at the University of Bath whose research focuses on the applications of fluid dynamics, from bouncing droplets, to multiscale river modelling. Outside of her research she dedicates a lot of time towards maths communication. Alongside giving public talks, she streams her PhD and postdoc experience and teaches maths on Twitch, a live-streaming platform, under the name 'KatDoesMaths'. She is passionate about ensuring that the PhD application process is as transparent as possible and since 2022 has built 'PhD Your Way' - a virtual open day that brings Maths PhD application information from universities across the UK to one easy-to-access place. See more details on her website: https://katdoesmaths.me/Link opens in a new window