Biography

I am biostatistician at the University of Melbourne. I am also a theatre lover, an avid reader and an enthusiastic albeit terrible dancer. Originally from Scotland, I studied Statistics at the University of Glasgow. It was here I became interested in applying statistics to medical research.

I undertook a PhD at the University of Strathclyde where I examined the effectiveness of a vaccine for preventing childhood infectious disease. Following this, I spent two years working at the Medical Research Council in Glasgow helping address problems about how where people live, and the resources they have around them, influences their health. I relocated to Australia in 2012 to take up a position at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) to research childhood cancer.

In 2014, I was awarded a fellowship at Deakin University to tackle statistical issues in neighbourhoods and health research. I then became a researcher and statistical consultant at the University, assisting staff and students in the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition. I joined the University of Melbourne as a consultant biostatistician in 2019.

I am passionate about statistical communication and get a real buzz out of helping other researchers use statistics to answer their questions. This is often more about successful communication of statistics than it is about the statistics themselves! The process of making non-mathematicians comfortable with mathematics is both challenging and hugely rewarding. As a result, the focus of my research has been as diverse as the people I have been fortunate enough to work with, including doctors, psychologists, epidemiologists, social scientists, biologists and many more!

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