Meet the team

Meet the Whitehall II Study staff and academics

Over time, the Whitehall II Study has grown to include a team of Principal Investigators, Researchers, Support staff and PhD Students. There are also a number of academic visitors from Finland, France, Sweden and other countries working on various collaborative projects.

Principal Investigators

Professor Mika Kivimaki l Study Director/Principal Investigator

Professor Mika Kivimaki
Chair of Social Epidemiology
Whitehall II Study Director
Email: m.kivimaki@ucl.ac.uk

Background: Professor Kivimaki is an epidemiologist and director of the Whitehall II study.

Current area of research: Professor Kivimaki's research focuses on 3 broad topics: (1) risk factors for chronic conditions (type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, depression) and mortality; (2) prevention of Alzheimer’s disease and other late-onset dementias; and (3) multicohort omics and outcome-wide analyses to increase aetiological understanding.

A detailed biographical interview is available in Circulation 2012; 126 (Oct 23); f97-f102 "Spotlight European Scientist in Cardiology".

Professor Archana Singh-Manoux l Principal Investigator

Professor Archana Singh-Manoux
Research Director, INSERM
Honorary Professor, UCL
Email: a.singh-manoux@ucl.ac.uk

Background: Professor Singh-Manoux leads the cognitive ageing programme of the Whitehall II study and heads a research team entitled "Epidemiology of ageing and neurodegenerative diseases" @epiageing at INSERM, the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research.

Current area of research: Our overarching objective is to identify the drivers of health at older ages using a lifecourse approach. Key characteristics of this research includes study of functional decline as well as dementia, consideration of both cognitive & motor change in order to assess how central nervous system dysfunction impacts the sequence of age-related changes, repeat assessment of multiple risk factors (social, behavioural, cardiometabolic, inflammatory, etc.), strong methodological core in order to tackle limitations due to suboptimal consideration of missing data, competing risks, selection, & reverse causation biases.

Professor Eric Brunner l Principal Investigator

Professor Eric Brunner
Professor of Social and Biological Epidemiology
Email: e.brunner@ucl.ac.uk

Background: Professor Brunner is an epidemiologist, researching the nature and causes of health inequalities. He co-directed the Whitehall II study for many years. He is a visiting professor at Osaka Graduate School of Medicine.

Current area of research: Professor Brunner leads the UK-China Health and Social Challenges Ageing Project a 4-year study of ageing, dementia and health in China and UK @UKCHASCAP funded by Economic and Social Research Council.

Researchers

Professor Annie Britton

Professor Annie Britton
Professor of Epidemiology
Email: : a.britton@ucl.ac.uk

Professor Britton's research focuses on the health consequences of alcohol consumption, with a particular emphasis on drinking across the life course.

Professor Britton uses data from several large cohort studies, including Whitehall II, with repeat measures of alcohol consumption to investigate how these relate to health outcomes such as cardiovascular disease, cancer and mortality. She is also researching the health needs of marginalised populations, working with colleagues at the UCL Collaborative Centre for Inclusion Health.

Additionally, Professor Britton is the Graduate Tutor for research students in the Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care.

Professor Severine Sabia

Professor Severine Sabia
Senior Research Associate
Email: s.sabia@ucl.ac.uk

After a degree in data sciences and a PhD in epidemiology at University of Paris-Saclay, Professor Sabia joined UCL in 2010 as a post-doctoral fellow. She is currently senior research associate both at UCL and the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research.

Professor Sabia's longstanding research interest is the impact of modifiable factors on health during ageing with focus on behavioural factors over the lifecourse – smoking, alcohol consumption, dietary behaviour, physical activity, and sleep. She is also interested in methods and statistical analysis such as longitudinal analyses with repeated data and missing data.

Professor Dr Adam Tabak

Professor Dr Adam Tabak
Clinical Research Associate
Email: a.tabak@ucl.ac.uk

Professor Tabák holds a medical degree and a PhD in diabetes epidemiology from Semmelweis University in Hungary. He shares his time as a research professor at Semmelweis University (Department of Internal Medicine and Oncology and Department of Public Health) and at UCL.

His research interests include clinical aspects of diabetes mellitus including the risk factors and consequences of diabetes complications and gestational diabetes as well as the efficacy of novel diabetes medications. His research in the Whitehall study focuses on the natural history of diabetes before and after the diagnosis of diabetes using the repeated measures available in this database. He is also interested in natural history of diabetic vascular complications.

Operational Staff

Mrs Isabelle Wilson l Programme Manager (on secondment)

Mrs Isabelle Wilson
Programme Manager
Email: isabelle.wilson@ucl.ac.uk

Isabelle Wilson, Programme Manager for the Whitehall II Study, is responsible for the general oversight and management of the study.

Isabelle is an experienced manager of operations with an interest in translational research. She has worked at the University of Oxford, UCL Institute of Child Health, Lurie Children’s Hospital Chicago, and for the NHS. She is an accredited AHCS clinical research practitioner and certified SOCRA Clinical Research Associate.

She has an undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge and an MSc. Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Sarah Clegg l Programme Manager

Sarah Clegg
Programme Manager
Email: s.clegg@ucl.ac.uk

Sarah Clegg is Programme Manager for Whitehall II, with responsibility for the general oversight and management of the study.

She is an experienced research manager and has most recently worked in the UCL Institute of Health Informatics on a large clinical study into Long Covid. She has also held project management roles at Queen Mary University of London and has PRINCE2 practitioner certification, as well as an AUA Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education Management.

Sarah’s undergraduate degree is in Classics from the University of Oxford.

Ms Stephanie Smith l Study & Data Coordinator

Ms Stephanie Smith
Study & Data Coordinator
Email: s.c.smith@ucl.ac.uk

Stephanie joined the Whitehall II study team in 1995 and took up the senior role of Study and Data Co-ordinator in 2001.

Stephanie is responsible for managing and co-ordinating the study data collection and administrative related activities. She also deals with participant and study related queries.

Mrs Beverly Milne l Clinical Co-Ordinator

Mrs Beverly Milne
Clinical Co-Ordinator
Email: b.milne@ucl.ac.uk

Beverly is the Senior Research Nurse responsible for co-ordinating the clinic and home visits during the study data collection. This includes developing standardized protocols for all measures and adapting these for the home visits.

Beverly is also responsible for the ethics applications and management of the study biological samples.

Mr Acer Blake l Senior Data Manager

Acer Blake, Senior Data Manager for the Whitehall II study, is responsible for the maintenance and distribution of the data collected from the study's participants. He has prior data management and software engineering experience working in the financial technology industry.

Acer holds an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from King's College London, as well as master's degrees in Artificial Intelligence and Bioscience from Imperial College London and University College London respectively.

Holly Nyx l Project Assistant

Holly Nyx is the Project Assistant to the Whitehall II team, tracking and collating research outputs and providing wide ranging administrative support to the study. Previously to this, she worked as a metadata assistant with the CLOSER consortium at UCL IOE.

Her undergraduate degree is in Creative English from Bath Spa, and she also holds a MSc in Social Research from Birkbeck, University of London.