"In Gaia we trust. All others must bring data!" – so goes the adage (or
thereabouts).
Though data alone will not an insight make. As a data scientist who has worked in both
industry and
academia, I know the value of data comes with contextual understanding and domain knowledge,
with asking the right questions, and with appropriate tools to extract the information
needed.
I put this ethos into effect as an health data scientist and epidemiologist working in Queensland
Health, in my scientific research, and when meeting the needs of private clients.
My research interests transect the fields of health, ecology, wildlife disease, conservation biology and evolution. I address problems in these disciplines by using state-of-the-art modelling techniques, robust experimental designs and rigorous statistical analyses to build on current theory and improve management applications.
Learn more
From time to time, when I have the time – which is definitely
not all of the time, and evidently not in pandemic times,
but certainly occurs sometimes – I like to write stuff.
I write about science, biology, nature and travel. Mostly these
ruminations remain my own, but occasionally they make it into the public domain.
As a data scientist and epidemiologist at Queensland Health, I deliver insights for health planning and policy. My work includes automating data pipelines, analysing population health data, building apps and dashboards, and producing visualisations and reports. A key focus is the production and delivery of the Chief Health Officer Report, helping communicate key health indicators that support public understanding and policy decisions.
QH CHO Report
Recently, I combined my love of wildlife, ecological training, and data science skills to create the Wild Toohey app. Build with R Shiny it harnesses public species occurrence data from the Atlas of Living Australia and iNaturalist to help users explore sightings and distributions, making wildlife spotting easier and more fun for anyone who loves Toohey Forest.
Wild Toohey App
The UK Biobank is a biomedical database containing genetic and health data for 500,000 people. My role is fast-paced and varied, ecompassing building data pipelines, providing statistical support for researchers, automating tasks, modelling data, and producing reports, dashboards, and visualisations.
UK Biobank
My research aims to understand the dynamics of wild populations in the face of adverse events, such as disease outbreaks, pathogen infection, species reintroductions, and environmental change. Publication list available at:
Google Scholar
The Curiosity Box provides STEM activities for families via a subscription-based service with customers located throughout Europe. I conducted an in-depth statistical analysis of their customer database, covering customers' demographic make-up, purchase history, and site activity providing key business insights and identifying knowledge gaps.
Curiosity Box
My writing has been published here: Oxford Science Blog Travel Thru History Oxford Science Blog National Geographic Travel 72&Rising Magazine Living Spain Magazine
The Zooniverse is the world’s largest platform for people-powered research: "citizen science". To enhance user engagement and encourage Zooniverse users to participatee in a wider range of projects I built a recommendation system that would offer algorithm-based project suggestions to users based on their demonstrated interests and activity on the site.
The Zooniverse