Postgraduate

MSc and Postgraduate Diploma in Epidemiology: Principles and Practice

Staff Profiles

The following are some of the staff involved in the development and support of this MSc and Postgraduate Diploma.

John Ackers
graduated from Oxford with a BA in chemistry in 1964 and a DPhil in glycoprotein biochemistry in 1967. He worked first on improving whooping-cough (Bordetella pertussis) vaccines at the Lister Institute and subsequently on the immunological diagnosis of Trichomonas vaginalis at the School.

Professor of Public Health Education, John’s research interests are concentrated on Entamoeba histolytica, but he still retains great affection for T. vaginalis, which is coming to seem both common and important in many parts of the world. He is also the School’s Distance Learning Co-ordinator, responsible for the content and the quality of the distance learning courses.

Ben Armstrong
After completing a doctorate in medical statistics at LSHTM in 1983, Ben Armstrong was a Professor of Biostatistics for 12 years in the departments of Occupational Health and of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McGill University in Montreal. He joined the Environmental Epidemiology Unit at LSHTM in 1995. His research interests include various aspects of statistical methods for epidemiological studies and cancer epidemiology.

Nick Black
trained in public health medicine, after four years’ clinical experience in hospital and community services. From 1985–93, he was Head of the Health Services Research Unit at LSHTM.

His principal research interests are the assessment of the effectiveness and appropriateness of health care interventions, in particular those of surgical procedures, the development of outcome measures, medical audit methods, and the implications of research findings in health policy and services. He is Professor of Health Services Research and Head of the department of Public Health and Policy.

Steve Bond
graduated in physics with astrophysics from the University of Manchester, then studied in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Edinburgh for a PhD in microwave remote sensing. He stayed in the same department to work as a developer on the EuroMET project, a European collaboration to produce web-based training in meteorology for students and forecasters.

He is employed full-time at LSHTM to program the computer-based parts of the distance-based MSc in Epidemiology: Principles and Practice, and to provide technical support to the project as a whole.

Jane Bruce
graduated in mathematics in 1988, then worked as a statistician at the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre (CDSC) in the UK. Whilst working at CDSC Jane was intensively involved in work on outbreak investigations, national surveillance projects and the statistical training of public health professionals. During this time she completed an MSc in Medical Statistics at LSHTM. She joined the Communicable Disease Epidemiology Unit at LSHTM in 1996 to work on a large epidemiological study based in Malawi and became involved in the school’s teaching programme. Since January 1998 Jane has been working on the development of the distance-based MSc in Epidemiology: Principles and Practice.

Daniel Chandramohan
graduated in medicine from the University of Madurai (India), then worked as a primary health care physician in India, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe for 16 years. He undertook an MSc in Public Health in Developing Countries at LSHTM and joined its staff in 1992. His research interests include epidemiology and control of malaria, indirect methods to assess causes of death and maternal health.

R. Elliott Churchill
After receiving degrees in geology and mathematics, Elliott’s first professional appointment was as a medical technologist in cardiology at the North Carolina Memorial Hospital, Chapel Hill, NC. She later received her Master of Science degree in Communications from UNC Chapel Hill and went on to hold teaching positions at different American universities.

Elliott began working at the CDC in 1972, and in 1980 she became the Chief for Editorial Services in the Epidemiology Program Office (EPO). As of 1996, she serves as the Special Projects Co-ordinator in EPO’s Division of International Health.

Simon Croft
graduated in zoology at Durham University and completed a PhD in Parasitology at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. His research experience is mainly in leishmaniasis and trypanosomiasis, and antiprotozoal chemotherapy, including several years with the pharmaceutical industry. He joined LSHTM in 1987.

His current research interests include chemotherapy of leishmaniasis, trypanosomiasis and malaria; interactions between antimicrobial drugs and the immune response, and novel drug delivery systems.

Hazel Dockrell
obtained a BA in Microbiology from Trinity College, Dublin in 1974, and a PhD in immunology from the University of London in 1978. She worked as a postdoctoral research fellow, in the Department of Immunology in the Middlesex Hospital Medical School, on the immunology of malaria. She joined LSHTM in 1985 to work on immunity to leprosy, where she is now a Reader in Immunology in the new Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases.

Her research interests include human T cell immunity, and cytokine responses in leprosy and tuberculosis. She also co-ordinates a number of overseas collaborations including links with Pakistan, Mexico, Portugal and The Gambia.

Bohumil Drasar
A bacteriologist by profession and an ecologist by inclination, Bohumil Drasar is interested in the ways microbial ecology can influence patterns of disease and the pathogenesis of infection. Though about half his career has been in research, he has reformed the School’s teaching, starting in 1983 with the PhD programme, then the MScs, and most recently introducing the DrPH.

For 10 years his research focused on gut bacteria and their role in mediating the effects of diet, drug and xenobiotics on the host. A recent focus is serious pathogens of environmental origin, e.g. Vibrio cholerae, Legionella pneumophila and Burkholderia pseudomallei. The use of tissue culture systems for the study of toxicity and mechanisms of pathogenicity is an ongoing interest.

Astrid Fletcher
is an epidemiologist and has worked at LSHTM since 1992. She has been involved in the Epidemiology teaching programme and was Course Director for the MSc in Epidemiology from 1993 to 1998.

Her main interests are in the epidemiology of ageing, and her research programme in elderly people includes studies of screening, nutritional epidemiology, the epidemiology and treatment of hypertension, and ophthalmic epidemiology.

Judith Green
has a BSc in anthropology and an MSc in medical sociology from the University of London. Her PhD study was on the sociology of accidents. She has also researched and published on patients’ views of their health care, and the organisation of primary care, emergency admissions and methodology. She is now Lecturer in Sociology in Health Services Research.

Reinhold Gruen
graduated in medicine from Free University, Berlin and trained as a specialist in internal medicine. His doctoral thesis was on a topic related to viral carcinogenesis. After six years of clinical experience he switched to management and worked in leading administrative positions of public health and hospital services and later as an international health care consultant. He undertook the MSc in Health Services Management at LSHTM and joined the School staff in 1997.

His recent areas of research include the economic evaluation of renal services for the elderly in the UK and human resource development in government health and family planning services in Bangladesh.

Andy Hall
originally qualified in medicine. After UK hospital-based training in infectious diseases he spent two years as a Provincial Medical Officer in Papua New Guinea. On his return he took an MSc in epidemiology followed by a PhD whilst working for the MRC Environmental Epidemiology Unit in Southampton. From there he moved to a post with the International Agency for Research on Cancer (WHO), based in The Gambia. He moved to LSHTM in 1990, where he teaches and conducts research on vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases.

Michael Jones
An epidemiologist and statistician, Michael Jones has been working at LSHTM since he completed his PhD in 1996. He graduated with a BA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and an MSc in Applied Statistics from Oxford University. Before starting his PhD at LSHTM in 1992 he worked in Australia and in France at the International Agency for Research on Cancer. His interests are in cancer epidemiology and statistical methods for epidemiological studies.

Anthony Kessel
graduated in medicine in 1989 and has spent the past 10 years specialising in both general practice and public health. His interest in medical ethics took root during an MPhil degree in the history and philosophy of science, which he completed in 1991. He has been actively involved in medical ethics since then and is currently an ethicist on an NHS research funding body. In 1996 Anthony received an MSc in Public Health from LSHTM, and he joined the Epidemiology Unit in 1997.

His current research focus is Philosophy of Public Health, and he is involved in a range of teaching activities including epidemiology, public health and health care ethics. He also spends half his time as a practising public health physician in North London.

Betty Kirkwood
joined the LSHTM 18 years ago. Her main current interests are in strategies to improve vitamin A status; improving health provider performance and/or appropriate care-seeking behaviour; epidemiology and control of diarrhoeal diseases and acute respiratory infections and the evaluation of community-based interventions. She is Head of the department of Epidemiology and Population Health.

Colin Leake
took his first degree in zoology at Leeds University UK (1971). He joined the team in the department of Entomology at LSHTM, pioneering cultivation of vector cells. In the Arbovirus Unit he undertook work on laboratory flavivirus vector-interaction, and vector ecology studies in South East Asia. He now continues fieldwork on dengue vectors in South America and South East Asia, and laboratory research on vector competence, insect defence mechanisms and saliva. He has been a lecturer since 1986.

Li-Wei Chao
received his MD degree and MA in Public Policy from the University of Chicago, and is nearing completion of his PhD degree in Economics at the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania. He is an appointed Expert in Health Economics at the Canter's for Disease Control and Prevention.

He is interested in the areas of theoretical and applied cost benefit and cost effectiveness analysis, and has played an instrumental role in government and pharmaceutical company sponsored research in the fields of family planning, contraceptive choice, HIV risk behaviour, health insurance reform, pharmaceutical regulation and competition, hospital total quality management, and comparative health care systems. Dr Chao has taught economic evaluation in the, the Far East, South Africa, Spain and Saudi Arabia.

Punam Mangtani
worked as a clinician in hospital, and in primary health care, before going on to study for a masters and then a research degree in epidemiology at LSHTM. Her research interests include infectious diseases such as influenza and pneumonia, hepatitis B and TB as well as non-communicable diseases such as breast cancer. She also has general interests in health economics applied to vaccine preventable diseases, migrant studies and women’s health.

Tony McMichael
is an epidemiologist from Australia. After graduating in medicine and gaining a PhD in epidemiology, he spent four years studying the causation of occupational diseases at the University of North Carolina, USA. He subsequently directed a research programme in dietary influences upon chronic disease aetiology, in Adelaide, Australia, where he also developed an ongoing interest in environmental lead and childhood intellectual development.

He currently has a major interest in environmental epidemiology (and risk assessment), and is developing research ideas and strategies in relation to global environmental changes and health. In 1994–96, he co-ordinated scientific reviews of aspects of this topic for WHO, the UN Environment Programme, and the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. His other research interests relate to the health effects of air pollution and the relationship between diet and cancer.

Charles Normand
Prior to joining LSHTM, Charles Normand worked at the Queen’s University of Belfast, University of York, and as Principle Economist for Health and Social Services in Northern Ireland.

His research interests are in economic evaluation of hospital services, health care human resources, health care finance, medical technology and economics in clinical trials.

Jessica Ogden
(MA Manchester 1991; PhD Hull 1996) is Research Fellow in Social Science, on the ODA Tuberculosis Programme at LSHTM. She did her doctoral work in Kampala, Uganda, focusing on the ways in which women’s reproductive identity affects their responses to AIDS.

Currently she is engaged in collaborative operations research on tuberculosis control in India. Her main research interests include the relationship between identity and health, and socio-cultural approaches to relevant interventions for health and public welfare.

Aviva Petrie
obtained a BSc in statistics from UCL and an MSc in medical statistics from LSHTM in 1970. She has held posts as lecturer at LSHTM and at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, senior lecturer at the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine and visiting professor at Stanford University, California.

She is currently an honorary lecturer at LSHTM and a part-time consultant/senior lecturer both at the Eastman Dental Institute and the Royal Veterinary College of the University of London.

Joceline Pomerleau
is a Canadian epidemiologist with a particular interest in nutritional epidemiology. She did a BSc and an MSc in nutrition at the Université de Montreal (Canada) and a PhD in epidemiology at the University of Western Ontario (Canada). In 1995, she came to LSHTM as a postdoctoral fellow to work on the study of ethnic differences in risk factors for heart disease, hypertension and diabetes. She joined the European Centre on Health of Societies in Transition (ECOHOST) in March 1999. Her main current research interest is in the nutritional determinants of health and disease in countries of the former Soviet Union.

Jennifer Roberts
studied economics at the London School of Economics where she was employed until joining LSHTM in 1974. She has worked on unemployment, regional policy and labour markets in the health sector.

Her current research interests are in the area of infectious disease: intestinal infections, E. coli 0157, and Hepatitis C and the perception of risk of infection in reformed health care markets. Other interests include the primary and secondary interface including experiments in telemedicine.

Laura Rodrigues
is a senior lecturer in Communicable Disease Epidemiology. Born in Brazil, with training and experience in both Brazil and England, she settled in England in 1981.

Her main interests are in epidemiological methods applied to infectious diseases, HIV and AIDS in women, gastrointestinal infections, verbal autopsy, distance-based learning, tuberculosis, measles, and vaccines and vaccination programmes.

Cally Roper
Cally’s background is in population genetics, but she now works as a Research Fellow at LSHTM, where her research is on P. falciparum malaria. She is interested in the application of population genetics to questions of importance for control. These include drug resistance in parasites, insecticide resistance in vectors and the dynamics that affect their evolution and spread.

Her recent work applies molecular population genetic tools to analyse the impact of seasonal drought on the population structure of Anopheles arabiensis in KwaZulu, which is carried out in collaboration with colleagues at the National Malaria Control Program, SAMRC Durban, and is funded by DfID.

Colin Sanderson
Colin’s first degree was in engineering, and he has a background in operational research, statistics and epidemiology. Colin’s research interests are in quantitative methods for resource allocation and needs assessment.

Isabel dos Santos Silva
was born in Portugal, and is working as an epidemiologist in the Cancer and Public Health Unit at LSHTM. Her current research interests are mainly in the area of cancer epidemiology. She has been involved in the analysis of the geographical distribution of cancer incidence in England and Wales, various reproductive-related cancer studies and a large cohort study on the health consequences of exposure to alpha-radiation.

Isabel enjoys teaching. She organised the short course in Epidemiology and Medical Statistics for several years. She has written a teaching textbook on cancer epidemiology to be published by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (WHO/IARC).

Peter Smith
studied mathematics and statistics at City University, London. Since 1965 he has worked on epidemiological and statistical research in a variety of institutions and places, including Medical Research Council Units in London and Edinburgh, Makerere University Medical School in Uganda, the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyons, France, the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in Oxford, Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, USA, and the Tropical Diseases Research Programme of WHO in Geneva. He moved to LSHTM in 1979.

His research interests include large-scale intervention studies against tropical diseases, including vaccine trials. In recent years he has been much involved in investigations of the link between Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in humans. He is Professor of Tropical Epidemiology and Head of the department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases.

Bianca De Stavola
is Italian, and graduated in statistical sciences at the University of Padua in 1979. She then came to England, where she obtained an MSc in statistics at the London School of Economics and a PhD in statistics at Imperial College, London. She joined LSHTM in 1994.

She is involved in running the twin study of risk factors for the cancers of the breast and testis and in the teaching programme for MSc and PhD students, and is now enthusiastically involved in developing the material for the distance-based Diploma and MSc in Epidemiology: Principles and Practice.

Neil Stoker
graduated in biological sciences at the University of Leicester, and studied in the Department of Genetics at the same institution for a PhD on the molecular genetics of cell wall biosynthesis in Escherichia coli.

After working as a postdoctoral fellow at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, looking at the genetics of collagen, he joined LSHTM as a lecturer in 1985. He is now Senior Lecturer in the Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases.

His main research interests cover the molecular genetics of mycobacteria, and include cell wall biosynthesis, and regulation of virulence genes in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Bob Sturrock
worked in the Tropics continuously from 1961-81, in Africa and the West Indies. He joined LSHTM in 1973 and returned to the UK in 1981. Now a senior member of staff based in the Infectious and Tropical Diseases Department, and Course Organiser of the Distance Learning MSc/Diploma in Infectious Diseases, his interests include all aspects of helminthology, especially schistosomiasis epidemiology and control.

He is also interested in certain intestinal nematodes of humans and cestodes. Bob continues to make regular overseas visits to Africa, the Caribbean and South America, spending between 8 and 10 weeks on two field trips each year.

He is currently involved in an INCO-DC (EU)–funded project in collaboration with the Kenyan and Ugandan Ministries of Health, the University of Cambridge and the Danish Bilharziasis Laboratories.

Geoffrey Targett
is a medical parasitologist with a major interest in immunity to parasites, especially malaria, and in field studies on parasite transmission and intervention measures. He has experience in strategy development at an international level for WHO and other agencies. He is also an experienced teacher at both postgraduate and undergraduate level in the UK and in other countries.

Anne Tholen-Kennard
graduated in Mathematics at Exeter University and then qualified as a nurse at St Thomas’ Hospital, London. She subsequently joined St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College, where she was involved in work on the epidemiology of congenital malformations and was responsible for the development of the first antenatal serum screening service for Down’s syndrome in the UK. In 1998, she obtained an MSc in Epidemiology at Erasmus University, Rotterdam (The Netherlands). She joined LSHTM in 1999. Her research interests include psycho-social aspects of antenatal screening, ultrasound screening for congenital abnormalities and the risks of maternal epilepsy.

Veronica Tuffrey
graduated with a BA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University in 1983, and worked in oil exploration until coming to LSHTM in 1988 to study for the MSc in Public Health Nutrition. A research post at LSHTM, with fieldwork in Nepal, led to a PhD.

Since 1994, she has worked as a consultant, undertaking overseas assignments for UN agencies and an NGO. Her main research interest is in anthropometric indicators of nutritional status and household welfare.

Gill Walt
graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science and worked for three years in Mozambique, after independence. Her main interest is in health policy. She has worked on policy issues in primary health care – for example, editing a book on community health workers (Community Health Workers in National Programmes: just another pair of hands?).

Her more recent research has explored the international policy environment, looking at the links and relationships between international health policy and national policy-making. She has worked in many countries in southern Africa, and other parts of the world.

Jerry Wheeler
is a lecturer in the Infectious Disease Epidemiology Unit of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Jerry has worked in the School since 1989 as a statistician and epidemiologist. He was part of a national general practice based study of infectious intestinal disease in England from 1992-1996 and has since worked on several studies of water quality and health.

His research work in developing countries has also included studies of intestinal disease as well as immuno-epidemiological studies of measles, tuberculosis and malaria. Jerry is a Course Manager for the Epidemiology: Principles and Practice course with Isabel DOS Santos Silva. He also teaches on courses held within LSHTM and overseas in epidemiology and statistical methods with a particular focus on multi-level modelling.

David Wonderling
studied economics at the University of Sussex and has an MSc in Health Economics from the University of York. He worked at the Health Economics Research Group at Brunel University for two years before joining LSHTM in 1996. His research includes evaluation of coronary prevention programmes; comparison of methods for estimating cost-effectiveness ratios, investigation of cancer service contracting.