Biography
I joined Edinburgh Napier in 2022 as lecturer in Epidemiology and Public Health. I previously worked the university of Glasgow, and during the pandemic was seconded to the Queen Elizabth University Hospital as part of the UK-wide Lighthouse lab network where I contributed to molecular qPCR and data analysis of Sars-Cov2 samples.
Having previously served as a British Army Paratrooper I completed my PhD at the University of Edinburgh, Department of Psychology in 2005. My area of expertise lies in behavioural endocrinology, chronobiology, and the measurement of hormones. My early interest in the relationship between the endocrine system and its relationship to complex social behaviour centred around status, social defeat, and hierarchy in human females has developed into my epidemiological work around poverty, deprivation, hierarchy, allostatic load, and health in females. I have been engaged in research projects that investigate androgen dynamics and social dominance in human females, fear thresholds and olfaction across the menstrual cycle, genomic and non-genomic action of androgens, and development of in-house ELISA protocols for androgen precursors and metabolites. Currently, I am conducting pan-European epidemiological work around population level ‘deaths of despair’ in females.
I am the Director of postgraduate research (research degree lead) for the School of Health and Social Care and welcome enquires about PhD study in any discipline within our school. From a personal perspective, I am available to supervise PhDs in epidemiology or public health that relate broadly to health and deprivation, hormones, inequality, or status. I am also available for collaborations in these areas.