Policy, media, and professional activities
SPI-M-O
During the COVID-19 crisis I contributed to the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M-O), a subcomittee of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE). During 2020 and 2021 I carried out modelling studies on several candidates for non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) against COVID-19, which formed part of the scientific evidence base which was used to guide policy decisions during the pandemic. I was specifically involved in policy analyses covering support bubble exemptions to lockdown measures, temporary relaxation of lockdown over Christmas 2020, and the potential for out-of-household isolation of people with COVID-19 living with clinically extremeley vulnerable individuals. The details of the model I used for these contributions are covered in this paper.
Aside from SPI-M-O, I was also involved in advisory modelling for the Department of Health and Social Care assessing COVID-19 vaccination policies for staff in care homes.
For my contributions to SPI-M-O I was awarded the SPI-M-O Award for Modelling and Data Support. The members of SPI-M-O were also collectively awarded the 2022 Weldon Memorial Prize for “noteworthy contributions to the development of mathematical or statistical methods applied to problems in Biology”.
Media
I was quoted in a May 2020 Times article (paywalled) on global patterns of COVID-19 spread.
Awards and prizes
- 2021 School of Life Science Post-Doctoral Research Prize for the Faculty of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. Awarded by the university of Warwick in recognition of my early work on COVID-19.
- 2020 IBM Science for Social Good grant. Grant of £20,000 awarded by IBM to support my research on models of non-pharmeceutical interventions against COVID-19.
- 2018 IMA Small Grant Scheme, awarded by the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications to fund my attendance at the 10th Swedish Meeting on Mathematics in Biology.