Salary: minimum £52,606 per year
Locations: UK Health Security Agency, Colindale, London, NW9 5EQ; Imperial College School of Public Health, Norfolk Place, London, W2 1PG; and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT
Duration: available immediately until 31 March 2025

A dynamic new job is being offered at UK Health Security Agency in collaboration with Imperial College London and LSHTM as part of the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Modelling and Health Economics. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown once again the potential of genetic data and the UK Health Security Agency has been one of the key facilitators behind this explosion in data. Analysing viral genetic data leverages the shared evolutionary processes driving the dynamics and changes in viral populations. The field of phylogenetics is now mature and provides a wide range of tools that collectively model how epidemiological, immunological, and evolutionary processes act to shape phylogenies. However, many theoretical and practical questions need to be improved for the methods to keep pace with the data.

We seek a highly motivated and curious individual with a passion for statistics and computer science. The successful candidate will focus on 3 priority areas 1) Novel stochastic processes for the prior tree space, 2) Novel computational algorithms for the exploration of tree space, potentially using new ideas from the field of reinforcement and deep learning, 3) Approximate Bayesian algorithms for posterior inference, and 4) Integrating behavioural data within mechanistic frameworks.

For more information please contact either Samir Bhatt (s.bhatt@imperial.ac.uk) or Peter White (peter.white@ukhsa.gov.uk)

Samir Bhatt
Professor of Machine Learning and Public Health, University of Copenhagen
Professor of Statistics and Public Health, Imperial College London

Peter White
Head of the Modelling & Economics Unit, UK Health Security Agency
Professor of Public Health Modelling, Imperial College London

This post is funded by the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit ( HPRU) in Modelling and Health Economics (www.imperial.ac.uk/hpru-modelling), a partnership of Public Health England, Imperial College London (https://www.imperial.ac.uk/school-public-health/infectious-disease-epidemiology/), and LSHTM (https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/research/centres/centre-mathematical-modelling-infectious-diseases/research-themes). The HPRU's goal is to improve public health through delivering a step change in research capacity available for health protection modelling. The HPRU focuses analyses that inform policy-making, and has been playing a leading role providing analysis to inform policy on COVID-19 nationally and internationally.