Curriculum vitae

I am a driven and effective researcher with experience of handling large-scale medical data and of computational modelling, particularly in high-performance computing environments. I have a track record of contributing to and driving world-leading research in human genetics, particularly in the field of sleep and chronobiology, and have forged links with national and international collaborators. Most recently, this is evidenced by me having jointly led the largest-ever genetic studies of sleep patterns resulting in widespread coverage of my work by the global media and by my prize-winning work on accelerometer-derived sleep patterns. I am a quick learner, adapting rapidly to new fields of study and new methodologies. I enjoy the challenges of communicating complex ideas to a range of audiences and I work well both independently and as part of a research group.

Research interests

My interests lie in identifying the genetics of sleep disorders and circadian rhythms through genetic association studies in large population-based cohorts, to better understand the causal links between sleep characteristics and disease, particularly mental health and metabolic disorders. Using the UK Biobank activity monitor cohort, I have helped develop a new algorithm for characterising sleep and have derived and investigated measures of sleep timing, quantity and quality and their relationships with disease. I am interested in taking this work further to develop more advanced methods for capturing features of circadian rhythms and sleep behaviours and explain how they are affected by chronic disease. I also hope to leverage large-scale health record data to study the aetiology of a wide range of sleep and circadian disorders.