IMI - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Head of Policy Programmes and Communications
Dr Benjamin Metcalfe is a lecturer in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering and a member of the Centre for Biosensors, Bioelectronics and Biodevices. He works in the area of biomedical engineering where his main area of research involves neural interfaces (with both the peripheral and central nervous system). He is particularly interested in the development of neural prostheses, such as artificial limbs, that integrate directly with the nervous system. His work has been funded by both the EPSRC and the National Institute for Health Research, and he holds a number of non-executive posts in the charity sector. As part of his fellowship for the IMI Ben will be working to develop novel upper-limb prostheses using robust and computationally efficient learning control methodologies that are able to adapt to daily variability in individual users. In particular working with Nicky Bailey and Matt Nunes to develop a novel prosthetic hand with high degrees of freedom.
Dr Evangelos Evangelou is a Lecturer in Statistics in the Department of Mathematical Sciences and a member of the University of Bath Centre for Mathematics and Algorithms for Data. He works in the modelling, sampling and optimisation of Gaussian processes, with the main focus being in environmental applications. During his IMI fellowship, he will work with Dr Evros Loukaides in the Department of Mechanical Engineering to develop data-based methods for the optimisation and control of manufacturing processes.
Dr Evros Loukaides is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. His research is primarily concerned with the mechanics and manufacturing of shell structures. One focus is the development and control of flexible forming processes for sheet metal and composite materials. During his IMI fellowship, he will work with Dr Evangelos Evangelou in the DMS to develop data-based methods for the optimisation and control of manufacturing processes.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Department of Computer Science
Dr Neill Campbell is a member of the Department of Computer Science and also a Royal Society Industry Fellow. Neill works in the domains of Computer Vision, Graphics and Machine Learning. His main are of research involves learning models of shape (2D and 3D), appearance and dynamics from images and video; in particular, performing these activities in an automatic or interactive fashion that allows these technologies to be put to use in a variety of applications without requiring users to have technical computer science expertise. He is also interested in machine learning problems where data are scarce or expensive to obtain (e.g. annotations from expert clinicians) and when uncertainty in the resulting output is important (e.g. medical applications). This has led to work on unsupervised (or semi-supervised) learning with Bayesian non-parametric models, in particular Gaussian processes. As part of his fellowship in the IMI, Neill will be focusing on developing new interactive machine learning processes for medical images, in particular working with Tony Shardlow and Will Tillett on the analysis of planar x-rays for Psoriatic Arthritis.
Job Titles:
- Coordinator for Postdoctoral Training
Alexandre is a mathematician working at the intersection of probability, combinatorics and theoretical computer science. His research interests include interacting particle systems, percolation, Markov chain mixing time, random and dynamic graphs, and randomized algorithms.
He obtained his PhD in Computer Science in 2011 from the University of California, Berkeley, and held post-doctoral positions at Microsoft Research and Università Roma Tre, before joining Bath in 2013. In 2016 he was awarded an EPSRC Early Career Fellowship. He held an academic position at Università Roma Tre and had visiting positions at NYU Shanghai and IMPA.
Anna is a Senior Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering with an interest in unsteady fluid mechanics and marine renewable power. She moved to Bath in 2019, having undertaken her MEng and PhD degrees and a research fellowship at the University of Cambridge. Anna leads the Bath Beacon in Zero Carbon Offshore Renewable Energy, which partnered with SAMBa for the January 2022 Integrative Think Tank. The aim of the Beacon is to develop an integrated design methodology for large-scale deployment of offshore wind, wave and tidal power, a problem with several avenues for mathematical exploration.
Job Titles:
- Mathematical Innovation Research Fellow
Caroline has responsibility for establishing and developing IMI's academic and industrial relationships. Before joining the IMI, Caroline was the Research Development Manager for EU and international funding in the University's Research and Innovation Services. She also worked for over a decade in Irish higher education in a number of research enabling roles including research development, education and outreach, and as a programme officer for the funding agency Science Foundation Ireland.
Caroline has a particular interest in methods for facilitating collaborations, generating new research ideas, and providing more time-efficient support. She has a PhD in Neurobiology from The Rockefeller University (2001) and a BSc in Molecular Biology & Genetics from the University of Toronto.
James Foster is a lecturer in the Department of Mathematical Sciences. His research interests include stochastic differential equations (SDEs), rough path theory and their applications to machine learning. As part of his IMI fellowship, he will develop SDE-inspired particle algorithms for Bayesian inference, with Neill Campbell and members of the Oxford-based DataSig team.
Job Titles:
- Lecturer
- Department of Biology and Biochemistry and a Member
Dr. Julia Sero is a Lecturer in the Department of Biology and Biochemistry and a member of the Centre for Therapeutic Innovation at Bath. Julia is broadly interested in mechanotransduction, the processes by which cells sense, respond to, and generate physical forces. These processes play fundamental roles in development, wound healing, aging, and diseases like cancer. Julia's work focuses on the structures and signalling pathways that organize cell shape, movement, growth, and death using high-content automated image analysis to measure hundreds of parameters from millions of individual cells that are exposed to different environments, treated with drugs, and/or genetically modified. As an IMI Fellow, Julia will integrate quantitative biological imaging with cutting-edge mathematics to gain insight into diverse systems, from cancer therapeutics to tissue engineering to nanotechnology.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Department of Mathematical Sciences
Kit Yates is a member of the Department of Mathematical Sciences and also co-director of the Centre for Mathematical Biology. Kit's research demonstrates that mathematics can be used to describe all sorts of real-world phenomena: from embryo formation to locust swarming and from sleeping sickness to egg-shell patterning. He is particularly interested in the role that randomness plays in Biology. His research into Mathematical Biology has been covered by the BBC, the Guardian, the Telegraph, the Daily Mail, RTE, Scientific American and Reuters amongst others.
Kit is also an author and science communicator. His first book, "The Maths of Life and Death" was published in 25 languages and his writing about the enjoyment and ubiquity of Mathematics has appeared in the Guardian, the Times, the i, the independent, the Daily Mail, and popular science publications such as Scientific American and IFLscience as well as having over 2 million reads on the Conversation. He has also made appearances on Panorama, More or Less, "Bang goes the theory" and even on Watchdog.
As part of his fellowship in the IMI, Kit will be focusing on developing the Mathematical Communication Centre - researching and practising ways to improve the public's engagement with mathematics.
Job Titles:
- Mathematical Innovation Research Associate
Dr. Lauren Cowley is a lecturer in microbial genomics and bioinformatics in the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath. Lauren joined the university as prize fellow of bioinformatics in 2018 and progressed to lecturer in 2022. Lauren's background is in public health and genomic epidemiology. She has worked on several international outbreaks, including implementing real-time genomic surveillance during the West Africa Ebola outbreak and working as an embedded scientist on the COVID-19 Taskforce in the UK Cabinet Office. She also previously worked at Public Health England (now UKHSA) in the Gastrointestinal Bacteria Reference Unit. Her research centres around genomic epidemiology, GWAS and machine learning for microbial genomics. She also uses human mobility data from social media services to investigate disease transmission internationally.
Job Titles:
- Lecturer and Medical Research Council
Ruth is a lecturer and Medical Research Council Fellow in the Department of Mathematical Sciences. She is also an Academy of Medical Sciences Springboard Award Holder and a member of the RSE Young Academy of Scotland. Ruth's research focuses on mathematical modelling of infectious diseases within the human host. As part of her IMI Fellowship, she plans to study tuberculosis (TB) and SARS-CoV-2 co-infection, aiming to understand the impact that the SARS-CoV-2 virus has had on the population and how this is going to affect TB disease and subsequent treatment in the future.
Dr. Sandipan Roy is currently a Lecturer/Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences. His Primary research interests are networks, graphical models, machine learning and applications of statistical algorithms in health care. Along with a team of collaborators from Bath, he is currently applying for the second round of a grant proposal involving applications of AI in health care. The team has been successful in the first round of applications and the IMI fellowship will be a boost in preparing for the second round and help achieving the impact required for it to be a successful proposal. Further, the fellowship will help him develop the network with the academia and industry for future advancement in other areas as well. The long-term collaborations with IMI and other departments across the University will be facilitated by this fellowship.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Department of Mathematical Sciences
Theresa Smith is a member of the Department of Mathematical Sciences. Theresa works on applications of statistics in health and the environment. She is currently leading a Knowledge Transfer partnership with Mayden House LTD and is part of several EPSRC/GCRF projects in Mongolia, Nigeria and South Africa. As part of their fellowship in the IMI, Theresa will be focusing on developing large multi-disciplinary proposals in healthcare technologies and the environmental monitoring.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Department of Mathematical Sciences
Tony Shardlow is a member of the Department of Mathematical Sciences. He works in theNumerical Analysis research group and is co-director of the Centre for Mathematics and Algorithms for Data (MAD). Tony's research interests include the numerical analysis of stochastic differential equations, Bayesian inverse problems, and machine learning. As part of his fellowship in the IMI, Tony will be focusing on developing machine-learning techniques for automatically assessing X-rays of diseased hands, with Neill Campbell and Will Tillett[link to this fellow]
Job Titles:
- Institute Director ( Interim )
- Member of the Department of Mathematical Sciences
Dr Tristan Pryer is a member of the Department of Mathematical Sciences. Tristan works on problems in numerical analysis and scientific computing in various application areas including: porous media, natural disasters and radiation transport. He has successfully secured funding from various sources including EPSRC, the British Council, FAPESP, LMS and IMA. As part of the fellowship in the IMI Tristan will be developing Mathematical models for proton transport used in cancer treatment in collaboration with IMI Fellow Alex Cox.
William Tillett is a consultant rheumatologist at the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases and senior lecturer in the department of pharmacy and pharmacology at the University of Bath, UK.
His current research interests centre on precision medicine in psoriatic arthritis (clinical, radiographic and patient reported outcome). He is the Principle Investigator or Co-Investigator on a variety of clinical commercial and Investigator initiated studies including an NIHR programme grant ‘PROMT' to improve the detection and assessment of psoriatic arthritis. He currently or has held grants with Abbvie, Celgene, Eli Lilly, Janssen and the NHS to better characterise the patterns and evolution of disease over time and the effect of treatment. He was the UK PI on the Abbvie Control RCT of Adalimumab vs dose escalation of Methotrexte in PsA.
As part of his fellowship he will be developing Machine Learning and Computer Vision techniques in medical imaging in collaboration with Dr Adwaye Rambojun, Dr Tony Shardlow and Dr Neill Campbell.
Dr. Xi Chen is a Lecturer in Machine learning and Data Science in the Department of Computer Science. His primary research interests are Bayesian inference, statistical signal processing, parameter estimation, decision making, and inverse problem in computationally expensive / black-box systems. Dr. Chen is also the recipient of ‘MAN Scholar' in statistical learning research awarded by MAN Group PLC. As part of the fellowship in the IMI, he will be working with Dr. Theresa Smith , mainly focusing on statistical machine learning in health-care.
Job Titles:
- Deputy Head of the Department of Computer Science
Özgür Şimşek is the Deputy Head of the Department of Computer Science, where she leads the Artificial Intelligence Research Group. From 2018 to 2020, she served as Deputy Director at IMI. Before joining the University of Bath in 2017, Özgür was a research scientist at the Center for Adaptive Behaviour and Cognition at the Max Planck Institute for Human Behaviour in Berlin, Germany. She received her PhD in Computer Science in 2008 from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Özgür's research spans a broad range of areas in machine learning, including reinforcement learning, supervised learning, learning from small data sets, and bounded rationality. As part of her IMI fellowship, Özgür will develop applications of reinforcement learning in healthcare with IMI fellows Dr. Will Tillett and Dr. Raj Sengupta.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Department of Mathematical Sciences
Alex Cox is a member of the Department of Mathematical Sciences. Prof Cox has worked in Probability, Stochastic Control Theory, and connections to Mathematical Finance. He has made important contributions to the theory of model-independent methods for derivative pricing, and the Skorokhod Embedding problem. Recently, as part of a Bath-based nuclear research group, he has been working on Monte Carlo methods for the Neutron Transport Equation in collaboration with the ANSWERS nuclear software service at Jacobs Engineering Group. As part of his fellowship in the IMI, he will be working on developing these ideas, as well as pushing into new applications in medical therapy (Proton Therapy) with IMI Fellow T. Pryer and IMI Director A. Kyprianou.
Chris Eccleston is Professor of Medical Psychology and Director of the Centre for Pain Research at the University of Bath (Resources). He has published three books and 280 scientific papers. He works in analgesic development, evidence based pain medicine, and Digital Therapeutics (DTx). His primary research is on how people make sense of being embodied, in particular the psychology of physical sensation. Specifically, he is interested in the development of treatment-resistant chronic pain, and inventing expert systems to revolutionize pain management across the lifespan. He consults and trains internationally on building and sustaining pain treatment centres, on pain communication, and on DTx development.
Professor Ed Keogh is based in the Department of Psychology and is Deputy Director of the Bath Centre for Pain Research, both at the University of Bath. His main research interest is in the psychology of pain, with a specific focus on sex and gender differences, interpersonal and contextual factors, nonverbal communication and pain expression, cognitive-emotional processes including attentional and cognitive biases. He has published over 100 research papers.
Prof Feil's research career has encompassed the evolution, population genomics and molecular epidemiology of a broad range of bacterial pathogens of humans and animals. He was involved with the development and implementation of Multilocus Sequence Typing, a key contribution being the eBURST clustering algorithm. He was joint-first author of a publication in 2010 demonstrating proof of principal for the use of Whole Genome Squencing for molecular epidemiology. His current research focus on ‘One-Health' questions of genome diversity, adaptation and AMR in the Enterobacteriaceae.
As an IMI fellow, I am looking for help to develop a statistical framework for describing the distribution of genes conferring antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and the plasmids that carry them, as determined by three (semi-independent) axes: 1. The strain / species of the bacteria, 2. The ecological setting, and 3. The geographical region. This is a first step to understanding the factors driving, or limiting, the spread of AMR within and between different ‘One-Health' compartments (eg hospitals, community, agricultural animals, the environment), and thus will form the basis of more robust risk assessments and targeted surveillance/ intervention measures.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Applied Analysis at the Department of Mathematical Sciences
Kirill Cherednichenko is Professor of Applied Analysis at the Department of Mathematical Sciences. His research interests are in understanding the emergence of macroscopic properties of media and structures by an asymptotic analysis of the behaviour of microscopic components. As IMI Fellow, he is particularly keen to strengthen links with Mechanical Engineering and Physics on applying mathematical tools to "metamaterials", which operate in resonant asymptotic regimes thereby calling upon novel analytic approaches.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Healthcare Engineering
Richie Gill is a Professor of Healthcare Engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University of Bath. He is Co-Vice Chair of the Centre for Therapeutic Innovation (CTI) and theme lead for Medical Devices and Imaging. He has over 30 years of experience in academia with particular expertise in biomechanics, musculoskeletal mechanics and orthopaedic devices. He has published more than 230 papers , holds 2 patents and has served as President of the British Orthopaedic Research Society (2017-2020), as well as vice-President of the European Orthopaedic Research Society (2015-2017). As part of his fellowship for the IMI Richie will be working to create methods to predict risk of osteoarthritis from medical imaging data, this will be with Tony Shardlow and Adwaye Rambojun using advanced shape analysis.