I have been working as a psychologist and epidemiologist for the past 5 years since completing my PhD in 2015. My ambition is to make statistics and science accessible to all. On these pages I will blog about topical research but also provide an insight into the fundamental components of maths (don't worry, I do not expect everyone to be as enthused as I am).

My stats background

I originally trained as a psychologist at Bristol University and Kings College London. Many will be surprised that psychology actually has research methods and statistics at its core. Both during my undergraduate and graduate training I took advanced compulsory courses in statistics.

My interest in stats was cemented during my PhD in epidemiology (which deals with population factors associated with disease and health and has nothing to do with the skin. Although I am frequently shown dermatological conditions). As a consequence, I re-trained as a medical statistician. I now regularly teach statistics on both BSc and MSc courses.

My RESEARCH

When I first started as a researcher I was interested in the psychological factors associated with chronic conditions, in particular diabetes. I then recognised that prevention was often sometimes better than cure, and moved into tobacco and alcohol control. I have subsequently published over 50 articles with a focus on tobacco harm reduction.

Tobacco harm reduction is a concept which comes from the illicit drug arena and involves any attempt to reduce the harm from smoking without the complete elimination of all tobacco constituents. Tobacco harm reduction is now a firm component of tobacco control in England