Leadership
Rob Aldridge (Group Lead) is a Professor of Public Health Data Science and Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Career Development Fellow at the Institute of Health Informatics. He qualified in medicine from University College London in 2007, gained an MSc in Epidemiology at The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2010 and completed his PhD at University College London in 2015. Rob uses data and digital technologies to investigate and improve the health of the public. In 2019 Rob lead research group’s development of a new MSc module in Public Health Data Science.
Ruth Blackburn (Deputy Lead) is a post-doctoral UKRI Innovation Fellow, working with the Public Health Data Science and
Child Health Informatics Groups. Her fellowship examines individual and school factors that influence the onset and long-term outcomes of adolescent behaviours relating to self-harm, violence, and drug or alcohol-use using linked health and education data. Her recent research has focused on measuring and addressing long-term physical and mental health inequalities, particularly for vulnerable and hard-to-reach groups such as homeless people, people with severe mental illness and women with substance misuse. Ruth has a PhD in Epidemiology (UCL Division of Psychiatry), MSc in Public Health (LSHTM) and BSc in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry (Durham University) and previously worked as an epidemiologist at Public Health England.
Group members
Alexei Yavlinsky works as a research fellow in Infectious Disease Informatics at the Institute of Health Informatics, University College London. He obtained his PhD in Computing from Imperial College London and subsequently obtained an MSc in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Prior to joining IHI, he worked for a number of London-based companies as a software engineer and data scientist. At IHI, Alexei's research is focused on building effective tools and modelling techniques for managing infectious disease outbreaks.
Dan Lewer is a public health registrar and an NIHR Doctoral Research Fellow at the Collaborative Centre for Inclusion Health. His research focuses on how the NHS can provide better care for physical health problems in people who use heroin and crack cocaine. He uses ‘real world data’ (such as electronic health records of hospitals and GPs) to show how health services can be improved.
Dee Menezes is a Data Scientist at the Institute of Health Informatics, University College London. After finishing her Masters in Public Health in 2011, she has since gone on to work in national Government policy development, homeless health service provision and for the past few years, in research. Dee’s recent work has largely been about using data to investigate and generate evidence about health inequalities, specifically: homeless health, migrant health, infectious diseases and sexual health.
Greg Hugenholtz is an academic research fellow at the UCL Centre for Public Health Data Science where he is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
Nadia Elsay is a Project Coordinator for the Public Health Data Science Research Group at The Institute of Health Informatics, University College London. Nadia Joined UCL in 2017, as a project administrator supporting the PASS (Preserving antibiotics through safe stewardship) research project with Professor Laura Shallcross. Nadia now works supporting Professor Rob Aldridge and the wider PHDS team, specifically coordinated the development of the Health on the Move App mobile research study and supports research funding applications and processes. Prior to joining IHI, Nadia worked in the private sector at KPMG and within wealth management and investment banking.
Rachel Burns (she/her) is a Research Fellow in the Centre of Public Health Data Science at the UCL Institute of Health Informatics. She gained a BA in Anthropology in 2014 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a MSc in the Control of Infectious Diseases from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Diseases in 2017. Her current research focuses on understanding healthcare barriers for socially excluded populations such as underserved migrants and refugees and has experience in migration health programme evaluation for International Organisations and NGOs. She is currently the lead of the Million Migrant study and Right to Care programme evaluation of the NGO Doctors of the World (DOTW) UK. She is the chair of the DOTW UK Expert Consortium of Refugee and Migrant Health, advocacy officer for Lancet Migration and a Commissioner and part of the steering committee of the UCL-Lancet Commission on Migration and Health.
Jana Kovar is a Project Manager at the Institute of Health Informatics. She has a PhD in Anatomy and Human Biology from the University of Western Australia which focused on the effects of inhaled steroids on lung development. She has worked for the West Australian Government Department of Health in Safety & Quality in Health Care and for the Confidential Enquiries into Maternal and Child Health in the UK. She joined UCL in 2006, project managing the Flu Watch Study (led by Prof Andrew Hayward). After a career break (to have children and live in numerous countries across Asia), Jana returned to UCL in early 2020 to set up and project manage the Virus Watch study; a community cohort study of COVID-19 in households across England and Wales. She is also the Scientific Project manager of the END-VOC Consortium. This consortium is led by Prof Ibrahim Abubakar (UCL’s Institute for Global Health) and aims to
evaluate the circulation and impact of current and emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOC) through the study of well-characterised cohorts across the world. The consortium is made up of 19 partners in 23 countries around the world.
Serena Luchenski is an NIHR Clinical Doctoral Research Fellow/Consultant in Public Health. Serena studied biology at the University of Victoria and then epidemiology at McGill University, Canada. She moved to London in 2008 and worked as an epidemiologist prior to joining the North London public health training scheme in 2011. She was awarded a 1-year CMO-funded Academic Public Health Fellowship to develop her interests in Inclusion Health in the UK. She worked at UCL and led a review of ‘what works’ for Inclusion Health populations, published in the Lancet. In 2017 Serena began an NIHR Clinical Doctoral Research Fellowship to work to prevent health problems and early mortality among people experiencing homelessness. She simultaneously completed her public health training and became an Honorary Public Health Consultant working with the Pathway Charity and Inclusion Health services at UCLH.
Sarah Beale Sarah Beale is a research fellow at the Institute of Health Informatics, University College London. Her PhD in Epidemiology and Public Health focused on the occupational epidemiology of COVID-19, and she previously completed an MSc in Health Psychology in 2016. Her research interests broadly include how social, environmental and behavioural factors interact to shape exposure to infectious diseases, and how we can develop equitable and effective public health interventions.
Isobel Braithwaite is a Public Health Registrar and an NIHR Doctoral Research Fellow in the Public Health Data Science team. Her PhD research focuses on how cold and energy inefficient homes affect long-term health risks and population health outcomes, having previously been involved in research on the links between air pollution and mental health, and climate change and health. Isobel is also involved in the UCL Virus Watch study, particularly in relation to disabilities and related inequalities.
Vincent Nguyen is a research fellow in public health methodology at the Institute of Child Health, University College London. They also conduct COVID-19 research in the Institute of Epidemiology and Healthcare and the Institute of Health Informatics. They gained an Engineer's degree from University College London in 2014, a Master's degree in Health Informatics in 2016, a Master's degree in Business Administration in 2021, and completing their PhD in Epidemiology (Public Health Data Science) in 2023. Their research focuses on applying trial emulation techniques to reduce biases in observational healthcare research, particularly in the following areas of non-communicable, pediatric, and infectious disease epidemiology.
Yamina Boukari works as a research fellow at the Institute of Health Informatics, where she focuses on using data science to investigate health inequalities as a result of migration and housing conditions. Yamina previously worked at the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, where she was part of the team that built Spotlight, a dashboard that brings together data on the health of inclusion health groups. Prior to this, she gained her MPharm and PhD in pharmacy from the University of Nottingham and then spent four years working as an editor and medical writer.
Kerrie Stevenson is a NIHR Doctoral Fellow and Public Health Doctor. She studied Medicine at The University of Edinburgh and worked as a doctor in North-West London before specialising in Public Health as an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow based at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Kerrie's research explores the impact of conflict and migration on maternal and child health, having been influenced by her experiences of conflict whilst growing up in Northern Ireland. Kerrie is the Migrant Health Advocacy Lead at the Faculty of Public Health, and is a member of the Lancet Migration Global Collaboration on Migration Health. She sits on the NHS Maternity Service Users' Equality Steering Group, the National Migrant Health Coalition, and in 2021 was awarded the Faculty of Public Health President Medal for outstanding service to Public Health.
Email: k.stevenson@ucl.ac.uk. Twitter: @drkstevenson @themamahstudy
Tom Yates is an NIHR Clinical Lecturer in the Division of Infection and Immunity and a member of the Public Health Data Science Group. Tom completed degrees in immunology (2006) and medicine (2009) at UCL, followed by an Academic Foundation Programme in Oxford. He then studied for an MSc in Epidemiology at LSHTM (2012) and a PhD in Epidemiology at UCL (2016). He has undertaken research with Oxford Vaccine Group (2009-11), Africa Centre (now AHRI) in KwaZulu-Natal (2013-14) and the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kilifi, Kenya (2016). Tom works as a specialist registrar in infectious diseases and general medicine. Before rejoining UCL in 2022, he was an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow at Imperial College (2018-2021), where he was an Associate Principal Investigator for the RECOVERY Trial. Tom's research interests include the transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the indirect effects of CMV infection.
Neha Pathak is a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Training Fellow at the Institute of Health Informatics and a Specialty Registrar in Community Sexual and Reproductive Health. She graduated in pre-clinical medicine and neuroscience from the University of Cambridge in 2009 and qualified in Medicine from University College London in 2012. Her research and clinical work is focused on improving sexual and reproductive healthcare access amongst vulnerable women and other underserved groups. She is currently completing a PhD using large scale primary care electronic health record data to describe the sexual and reproductive health and rights of international migrants to the UK.
Majel McGranahan is a Public Health Specialty Registrar in the West Midlands and an MRC Clinical Research Training Fellow. Before starting public health specialty training, Majel worked as a doctor in London and the Southeast. Majel’s MRC Clinical Research Training Fellowship uses mixed methods to explore barriers and facilitators to improving preconception health and contraceptive access among migrant women. As part of her fellowship, Majel is using maternal and primary care electronic health records to identify inequalities and areas for preconception health improvement.
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