Georgina Ferry interviews Lisa White, Professor of Modelling in Epidemiology at the Big Data Institute, 13 September 2022.
Topics discussed include (00:00:29) early interest in health, degrees in mathematics at the University of Warwick and interest in mathematical biology, PGCE training and work as a teacher and later work abroad; (00:02:45) modelling and computational approaches to public health; (00:04:22) future planning of health services and impact on policymaking; (00:05:50) prior projects, including research relating to methods for dealing with the emergence and spread of antimalarial drug resistance; (00:13:24) collaboration with other researchers, including interdisciplinary nature of the role; (00:15:11) adoption of modelling work into practice, including malaria work; (00:16:20) problem of infectious disease on a global scale; (00:20:13) first awareness of COVID-19; (00:24:25) key elements of COVID model; (00:26:55) collaboration with others on COVID model, including Ricardo Aguas and Nathaniel Hupert; (00:30:00) CoMo Consortium [COVID-19 International Modelling Consortium]; (00:33:23) consortium members' access to their individual governments or health services; (00:34:56) non-pharmaceutical interventions included in the model; (00:37:02) evaluation of how effective the model was to the policies of various countries; (00:40:37) impact of the work on the United Kingdom, including collaboration with Oxford COVID-19 research teams; (00:44:43) age structures and proportion of the population at risk, including variation by country; (00:47:21) changes as a result of the pandemic, including issues with funding support; (00:51:37) consultancy opportunities and generation of income; (00:53:46) research leadership and opportunities for international colleagues; (00:55:26) Oxford research collaborations; (00:57:41) models relating to multiple diseases, including work with Sheetal Silal and Rima Shretta on project to simulate potential elimination of malaria from the Asia-Pacific region; (01:04:07) awareness and profile of data-driven approaches as a result of the pandemic; (01:09:26) changes as a result of the pandemic, working conditions including remote working; (01:13:01) mental wellbeing, including importance of the work in supporting wellbeing; (01:18:01) personal threat of exposure to COVID-19; (01:20:06) changes in approach to work as a result of the pandemic and hopes for the future relating to pandemic preparedness.
