People

ICLS is an ESRC funded research centre based at UCL, but with additional expertise from researchers at the University of Manchester and the University Hospital Orebro in Sweden.

The Centre's multidisciplinary team includes leading epidemiologists, sociologists, biologists, statisticians, psychologists, clinical scientists and demographers.

Its Director is Professor Yvonne Kelly and its Deputy Director is Dr Anne McMunn. Former Director Professor Amanda Sacker monitors the Centre's impact.

Yvonne Kelly

Professor Lifecourse Epidemiology, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at UCL

 Director

Professor Kelly is Director of ICLS and leads work on health and development during childhood and adolescence. Her research makes use of longitudinal datasets including the Millennium Cohort Study, the UK Household Longitudinal Study, the 1958 and 1970 Birth Cohort Studies. 

Anne McMunn

Professor of Social Epidemiology, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at UCL

Deputy Director

Professor McMunn investigates the potential influence on health and wellbeing of aspects of work (defined broadly from a gender perspective), and social relationships (including within the family), how gender structures work and family relations, and the impact of social change in this area on children and families. Her work mainly uses longitudinal quantitative techniques to analyse data from the British birth cohort studies, the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing and the UK Household Longitudinal.

Amanda Sacker

Professor of Lifecourse Studies, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at UCL

Co-Investigator

Professor Sacker's research focuses on social inequalities in health and life-course social epidemiology. Her particular interests are the statistical modelling of complex longitudinal processes and the developmental origins of poor physical and mental health in adult life. She took over as director of ICLS from Professor Mel Bartley in 2013. She is currently leading a Nuffield Foundation funded project looking at the adverse lifelong consequences of being in care as a child. 

Tarani Chandola

Professor of Medical Sociology, Cathie Marsh Institute and Social Statistics, University of Manchester 

Co-Investigator

Professor Chandola's research is primarily on the social determinants of health, focusing on health inequalities and psychosocial factors, and the analysis of longitudinal cohort studies. Much of his work has a focus on stress at work, and its psychophysiological effects on health.

Scott Montgomery

Scott Montgomery is Professor of Clinical Epidemiology, Örebro University Hospital & Örebro University, with an attachment to Karolinska Institute, Sweden.

Co-Investigator

Professor Montgomery's research includes how early life factors combine with later exposures to influence disease risk. This work is divided into two broad areas: metabolic and cardiovascular disease; and immune mediated disease such as multiple sclerosis and allergic sensitisation. Understanding the influence of cultural and material factors across the life-course on disease risk is central to this work.

Staff

Noriko Cable

Dr. Cable's research investigates social determinants of mental health and alcohol misuse across lifecourse and compares international differences in the relationship.

Rebecca Lacey 

Dr Lacey is a Lecturer in Quantitative Methods & Life Course Epidemiology in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at UCL. She currently leads an ESRC grant on early life adversities and health over the life course using large population cohorts (Millennium Cohort Study, 1958 British birth cohort and the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children).

Emily Murray

Dr Murray is Senior Research Associate in the  Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at UCL. Her research looks at the effects of where people reside across their life course on their health and well-being. She works with Amanda Sacker on her Looked After Children project. She also leads a Health Foundation research project on the Health of Older People in Places  

Dawid Gondek

Dr Dawid Gondek is a Research Fellow in the  Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at UCL. He works with Rebecca Lacey on her project investigating how adverse childhood experiences predict developmental trajectories of internalising and externalising problems across childhood and adolescence using the Millennium Cohort Study. 

BaoWen Xue

Dr Xue is a Research Associate in the  Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at UCL. She works with Anne McMunn on the quantitative component of an ESRC-funded mixed-methods project on transitions to adulthood amongst the generation of women represented by the 1946 birth cohort and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.

Visiting Fellows

Mel Bartley

Emeritus Professor of Medical Sociology, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, UCL

Professor Bartley's work has included research on health inequalities in men and women, with particular emphasis on measurement of social position and circumstances, and the relationships of unemployment and social mobility to health. Her book "Health Inequality: an introduction" is widely used in teaching and a second, extensively revised edition has recently been published. Her current  interests include the effect of life-course processes on social and health advantage, disadvantage and resilience, and how these are influenced by economic and social policies. Her blog is called "Social-Biological musings" reflecting the exciting new directions in social research to include biomarkers, and her Twitter name is @melb4886/. Professor Bartley is the former director of ICLS 2008 - 2012. 21/08/20

David Blane

Emeritus Professor, School of Public Health, Imperial College, London

Professor Blane has a background in medicine and social science. His general research interests include: health inequalities; life course studies; social gerontology. Current specific research interests include: causes of increase in life expectancy at middle age; social-biological transitions; measurement of social class after labour market exit. Professor Blane is the former ICLS Co-Director (2008 - 20012) and a member and former (2011) Director of organising committee of European summer school on longitudinal and life course research.

Thierry Gagné

Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, UCL. His fellowship focuses on the role of the transition to adulthood in the progression of health inequalities over the life-course.

Current PhD students

Andy Ross

Andy Ross is a Quantitative social reseacher with a background in both academic and public policy research. His PhD focuses on young people's transitions into adulthood, wellbeing, and disadvantage.

Gill Weston

Gill Weston works with employers and employees to tackle work-related stress and improve worker wellbeing and effectiveness. Her PhD looks at atypical working patterns in the UK: their relationship with mental health and sleep.

Alexis Karamanos

PhD investigates the influence of primary school environments on socio-emotional well-being and language development of children in England, Wales and Scotland, using longitudinal data from the Millennium Cohort Study and the National Pupil Database