Institute of Aquaculture

I am interested the ecology of disease, how diseases spread from place to place, why particular populations are more at risk than others, and how we can control and prevent disease outbreaks. My research is focussed on the epidemiology of fish diseases, however I have a continuing interest in terrestrial farming systems.

Oct 2007 - Present
University of Stirling, Institute of Aquaculture
Lecturer in Aquatic Health Modelling.
My research involves a variety of numerical approaches to tackling problems of aquatic animal health discussed more in the "projects" section below.

May 2004 - Aug 2007
University of Oxford, Department of Zoology.
Post-doctoral research assistant.
Research centred on the modelling and epidemiology of disease. The approaches include network models of disease spread, deterministic differential-equation-based models, and individual-based microsimulation. Aspects of this research were featured twice on Farming Today and recently were reported in the Daily Telegraph online.

May 2000 - May 2004
University of Edinburgh, School of Geosciences (form. IERM)
Post-doctoral research associate.
Work as part of a DEFRA LINK research programme. My research was centred on the production of a simulation model of animal growth response to nutrition and the environment. The animal concerned was the domestic pig. The model was then tested against growth trial data from dissection and monitoring of live animals through imaging by video camera (visual image analysis, VIA).

October 1996 - January 2000
Imperial College, University of London.
PhD Biological Sciences

October 1993 - June 1996
Clare College, University of Cambridge
BA Natural Sciences (Zoology)

Outside interests:
A player of the piano and viola, I also sing bass or tenor, whichever's in the shortest supply. I also enjoy hill-walking, running, cycling, and mint KitKats.