Understanding the spatial dynamics of infectious diseases is critical to target non-pharmaceutical interventions and vaccines appropriately. The spatial scales of these interventions are governed by biological and behavioural factors and change depending on the underlying structure of the population. However, we lack basic understanding of the dynamic nature of these scales for emerging infectious diseases and how they may impact our decisions to optimally intervene to reduce mortality and morbidity.

The postholder will be responsible for developing novel statistical and mathematical methods to better understand the role of human mobility and population structure in shaping the dynamics of human infectious diseases. There will be rich and exciting datasets at high spatial resolution from across the world to draw from and the PDRA is expected to translate scientific findings into actionable public health insights, also in support of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The PDRA will be embedded in a large collaborative project funded by the European Union Horizon 2020 programme and there will be plenty of opportunities to collaborate with researchers and policy makers from across the world. The PDRA is expected to work independently and develop their own research agenda in close collaboration with the PI of the project and a dedicated full time Research Assistant.
Responsibilities
• Develop novel mathematical and statistical methods to understand the spatial scales of infectious disease dynamics
• Determine the most appropriate methodologies to test hypotheses, and identify suitable alternatives if technical problems arise
• Manage own research and administrative activities, within guidelines provided by senior colleagues
• Contribute to wider project planning, including ideas for new research projects
• Gather, analyse, and present scientific data and insights to project partners and wider research community
• Lead scientific reports and journal articles and the presentation of data/papers at conferences
• Represent the research group at external meetings/seminars, either with other members of the group or alone