We strongly encourage you to get in touch with a potential supervisor before making an application. If you are interested in studying for a PhD or MScR with us, please find out more about our supervisors, below. Click on the name of an academic to link out to their profile on Edinburgh Research Explorer to find out more about their research interests and publications.AcademicArea of research interestEmailStella ArakelyanPrevention and management of long-term conditions; healthy ageing and ageing well with long-term conditions or multimorbidity; improving care pathways and transitions of care for people with multimorbidity or frailty; care experiences and outcomes for older couples living with multimorbidity; dyadic (couple- or pair-based) approaches to care and self-management; co-design and co-production of complex interventions; reducing inequalities in experiences and outcomes of care in later life; health services organisation, delivery, and evaluation; implementation science; mixed-methods research; secondary analysis of large datasets; evidence synthesis (systematic, rapid, and realist reviews).stella.arakelyan@ed.ac.ukCalum ArthurPerformance and sport psychology in high pressure high * consequence environments. I am a Senior Lecturer in Surgical Performance and have published across high performance contexts including military, sport, and surgery. I am also interested in researching cross pollination of knowledge between high performance contexts.carthur2@ed.ac.ukKatie AtkinsInfectious disease epidemiology (particularly HIV, RSV, impact of vaccines on AMR) using mathematical modelling and phylogenetic analysis.Katherine.Atkins@ed.ac.ukMiguel O. BernabeuMy research concerns the development of computational approaches capable of answering open questions in biomedicine and healthcare. I work closely with biologists, clinicians, and industry in problems of high relevance in both basic and clinical research, including: a) the development of automated methods for eye and systemic disease diagnosis in retinal scans, b) the evaluation of AI systems supporting healthcare delivery in real clinical settings, c) the study of how the structural properties of tumour vasculature affect oxygen/drug transport, and d) the investigation of vascular remodelling during angiogenesis.Miguel.Bernabeu@ed.ac.ukNicola BoydellSexual and reproductive health, with a particular focus on abortion and contraception; gender, sexuality and health inequalities; and the use of qualitative and participatory social-science methods to examine healthcare experiences, service organisation, and healthcare improvement, including knowledge exchange and public, patient and community involvement and engagement.Nicola.Boydell@ed.ac.ukChristine Campbellprovision of cancer screening in UK and international health contexts; the interface of primary care and cancer screening programmes; understanding factors influencing timely diagnosis of symptomatic cancer; inequalities in cancer care; mixed-methods health services research.Christine.Campbell@ed.ac.ukSarah ChanEthical, social and policy dimensions of emerging biomedical and health technologies, including genetic and genomic technologies; stem cells and regenerative medicine; reproductive technologies; new modes of health research including experimental medicine and data science; animal ethics and conservation bioethics.Sarah.Chan@ed.ac.ukKathrin Cresswellhealth informatics, qualitative methods, innovation.Kathrin.Cresswell@ed.ac.ukCatherine CromptonI am psychologist and researcher specialising in neurodivergent communication and interaction in health, education and social care.Catherine.Crompton@ed.ac.ukLuciana D'AdderioAI and data-driven innovation in healthcare. Adoption (procurement, implementation, evaluation, use) of AI in healthcare. Effects of AI technology adoption for clinicians, clinical practice, healthcare practices and their outcomes. AI technology procurement strategy and processes. Implications of AI tools for clinical/healthcare pathways and workflows. Implications of AI for clinical work and expertise. Ethical aspects of AI. AI governance (responsibility, trustworthiness). Healthcare AI validation and audit.l.d-adderio@ed.ac.ukGiulia De TogniQualitative research projects on responsible and ethical research and innovation in AI and robotic technologies for the health and social care sectors, including work on risk governance and user engagement.giulia.de.togni@ed.ac.ukAnnemarie DochertyData science and critical care, including clinical trials, machine learning, high frequency physiology data, routinely collected healthcare data.Annemarie.Docherty@ed.ac.ukAndrew DuckworthResearch and audit in trauma and orthopaedics. Clinical trials, large data studies, efficacy of patient reported outcome measures .Andrew.Duckworth@ed.ac.ukHelen EborallQualitative research methods to develop and evaluate complex healthcare interventions and support clinical trial research. Participatory social science research methods to promote access to inclusive health care and support management of chronic health conditions.h.eborall@ed.ac.ukSue Fletcher-WatsonI am interested in students wishing to do neurodiversity-informed, transdiagnostic or adiagnostic research, with elements of coproduction and a strong focus on real world impact. I am currently supporting three students seeking funding for a 2026 start. I am therefore only interested to hear from PhD students looking to start their studies in September 2027 or beyond. Sue.Fletcher-Watson@ed.ac.ukAndrea FordThe anthropology of women’s health, including childbearing, menstruation, endometriosis, menopause, chronic conditions, and innovations in FemTech; critical study of hormones, inflammation, and environmental health; mixed social science and medical humanities approaches.Andrea.ford@ed.ac.ukJaime Garcia IglesiasSocial and ethical dimensions of infectious diseases (including, HIV, COVID-19, mpox); sexuality and sexual health, stigma, health inequalities and decision-making; digital platforms and technologies in health; qualitative and mixed-methods research.jgarcia6@ed.ac.ukLiz GrantHealth systems and Health Workforce Development in low and middle income countries; development and integration of Palliative Care services into national health systems in low income countries; inequalities in health, barriers to service access and utilisation of services in low income settings; rRole of e and mhealth in facilitating access and improving health outcomes; Global Burden of Non Communicable diseases; Male Circumcision rituals and traditions; HIV/AIDS in Sub Saharan Africa; Spirituality and health and the role of Faith Based communities in supporting health care.Liz.Grant@ed.ac.ukAlasdair GrayPragmatic emergency care trials and clinical decision/risk prediction tools especially in cardiovascular emergencies and sepsis. Health intervention opportunities in emergency care. Emergency care systems.alasdair.gray@ed.ac.ukDavid GriffithImproving physical recovery after critical illness, with a focus on trials evaluating interventions to prevent or treat ICU acquired weakness and enhance post ICU recovery.David.M.Griffith@ed.ac.ukJeni HardenChild and family health: Including parenting in the context of illness; children’s experiences of health and illness; negotiation of care. Sexual and reproductive health: including young people’s sexual health services; experiences of abortion.Jeni.Harden@ed.ac.ukEwen HarrisonGlobal surgery and data science, including clinical trials, machine learning, natural language processing, mobile data collection platforms, wearables, automated data processing and display, decision modelling/Bayesian statistics, administrative data analysis, and patient reported outcomes.Ewen.Harrison@ed.ac.ukJulie JackoHealth informatics, human computer interaction, data driven innovation in healthcare integrating AI, data, digital innovation, and systems engineering to transform health and social care systems; population health equity, digital health, clinical decision support, multimorbidity, accessibility, and large scale data architecture.Julie.Jacko@ed.ac.ukCaroline JacksonQuantitative projects in the area of chronic disease epidemiology, specifically stroke, heart disease and diabetes and multimorbidity (particularly mental health and physical health co-morbidity). Health inequalities and gender differences in disease occurrence and outcome. Systematic review methodology.Caroline.Jackson@ed.ac.ukSteven KerrPrivacy enhancing technologies and secure multiparty computation, pandemic preparedness, health economics, artificial intelligence in health care.steven.kerr@ed.ac.ukDorien KimenaiCardiovascular Epidemiology. My research interests are the prevention of cardiovascular disease, risk prediction modelling, routine health care data, women's cardiovascular health and inequalities research.Dorien.Kimenai@ed.ac.ukJulia LawtonQualitative methods; people’s experience of living with and managing acute and chronic diseases; understanding and addressing inequities in access to healthcare; user engagement with healthcare technologies and medical devices; healthcare professionals’ experiences; developing and evaluating complex healthcare interventions; process and realist evaluations; optimizing recruitment into clinical trials. Prof Lawton is also available to supervise the qualitive elements of mixed-methods PhDs.J.Lawton@ed.ac.ukChase LedinSexual health, including adult and LGBTQ+; HIV/AIDS in Europe and North America; bacterial STI prevention; health promotion; disease elimination; harm reduction; antimicrobial resistance and stewardship; qualitative research methods; participatory and action-based research.Chase.Ledin@ed.ac.ukNazir LoneResearch and audit related to acute illness with a focus on critical care; improving underpinning methodology in this research area; research methods include epidemiology, health services research and methods using linked datasets.Nazir.Lone@ed.ac.ukSaturnino LuzApplications of machine learning methods in medical informatics research, with special interest in the analysis of communication and interaction in medical settings such as multidisciplinary team meetings, doctor-patient consultations and telemedicine, and methods for inference in high-dimensional data sets.S.Luz@ed.ac.ukPaul McKeigueStatistical genetics; molecular epidemiology; diabetes; disease stratification.Paul.McKeigue@ed.ac.ukRuth McQuillanMultiple sclerosis and vitamin D; diabetes epidemiology in sub-Saharan Africa; epidemiology of non-communicable diseases.Ruth.McQuillan@ed.ac.ukGillian MeadLife after stroke, Frailty, Shared decision making, Palliative care, Exercise for chronic disease, Systematic reviews, Large RCTs, Complex intervention design.Gillian.E.Mead@ed.ac.ukFelicity Vidya MehendaleApplication of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve global medical care. Machine learning (ML) algorithms for outcome evaluation, as diagnostic aids and to predict long term outcomes, with a focus on cleft lip and palate (speech, facial appearance, surgical safety). Epidemiology of congenital anomalies, particularly orofacial clefts. Addressing barriers to early diagnosis, referral and intervention for newborns with birth conditions in low resource settings, through m-health and training, to develop standardisation of newborn examination and congenital anomaly registries. Telemedicine to improve access to care, follow up and outcome data collection. Hypochlorous acid (HOCl) as a sustainable, safe surgical disinfectant. felicity.mehendale@ed.ac.ukKristin NicodemusArtificial intelligence, statistical genomics, psychiatric and mental health outcomes. Interest in depression, autism, gene-by-environment and gene-gene interaction. Particularly interested in statistical and AI methodology development and evaluation, often using simulation studies.Kristin.Nicodemus@ed.ac.ukHarish NairEpidemiology based projects in (paediatric) infectious diseases, refugee health, gender inequities in child health.Harish.Nair@ed.ac.ukClaudia PagliariExploration and evaluation of eHealth interventions, including organisational and social influences on implementation and clinical and psychosocial impacts. Systematic review and policy analysis of eHealth risks and benefits. Evaluating complex interventions. Linking policy and research. Consumer and patient engagement. Therapy adherence in chronic disease.Claudia.Pagliari@ed.ac.ukKarissa PattonSexual and reproductive health past, present, futures; history of health and medicine, gender and sexuality; history of health activism; health inequities; reproductive justice; participatory research; knowledge exchange; qualitative methods.kpatton@ed.ac.ukMartyn PickersgillThe sociology of biomedicine and biomedical technologies; the sociology of psychiatry, psychology and the mental health professions.Martyn.Pickersgill@ed.ac.ukHilary PinnockMy key area of interest is the delivery of care for people with common respiratory disease. Specific topics are supported self-management for asthma (and other long-term conditions), supportive and palliative care for people with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), telehealth for asthma and COPD. Methodological interests are mixed method evaluations (including trials, process evaluations, qualitative studies) and particularly pragmatic and implementation studies.Hilary.Pinnock@ed.ac.ukIgor RudanGlobal health epidemiology and policy.Igor.Rudan@ed.ac.ukNayha SethiData Ethics; responsible regulation, governance, ethical, legal and social aspects of data driven innovation, trust and autonomous systems, regulation of healthcare and health research.Nayha.sethi@ed.ac.ukLucas SeurenImplementation of health technology and digital health, AI and Machine Learning in health services (e.g., Ambient AI Scribes, AI-assisted discharge summaries), Remote delivery of health and social care (e.g., video consultations, hybrid group clinics), Health communication and conversation analysis, Socio-technical approaches to healthcare, Qualitative methods.lseuren@ed.ac.ukAhmar ShahApplication of data-driven technology in healthcare: this includes signal processing to extract information from time-series data using wearables, machine learning to find patterns in data as well as data fusion, development of intelligent algorithms for clinical decision support, and digital health solutions including telemonitoring solutions as well as applications running on a smartphone. Application areas are broad but at the moment, I have particular interest in chronic disease management especially respiratory illnesses such as asthma and COPD.Ahmar.Shah@ed.ac.ukSusan ShenkinCare homes (residents - especially transitions from acute care, and staff), Cognitive ageing, delirium and dementia (especially vascular), Frailty, Innovation and technology for older people, Systematic reviews (especially observational studies), Data linkage, Epidemiology.susan.shenkin@ed.ac.ukTing Shiepidemiology based projects focusing on respiratory infections, global burden of disease estimate.ting.shi@ed.ac.ukAthina SpiliopoulouMachine and statistical learning methods applied to genetic and biomarker datasets linked to health outcomes; genetic epidemiology; disease stratification; prediction of drug response.a.spiliopoulou@ed.ac.ukDevi SridharGlobal health governance, institutions, financing. Mixed-methods (quantitative & qualitative). Devi.Sridhar@ed.ac.ukCatherine Sudlow cathie.sudlow@ed.ac.ukEvi TheodoratouCancer epidemiology, especially colorectal cancer; Field synopses of genetic association studies; Epidemiology of glycans in health and disease; International Health.E.Theodoratou@ed.ac.ukThanasis TsanasTime-series analysis, signal processing, statistical machine learning, speech analysis, wearables. Designing decision support tools through data analytics and algorithm development, assisting remote diagnosis and telemonitoring. Applications primarily in chronic conditions, including neurological disorders, mental disorders, and endometriosis. Interested students can explore more in the group’s webpage: https://www.darth-group.com/.Athanasios.Tsanas@ed.ac.ukTim Walsh timothy.walsh@ed.ac.ukChris WeirMethodology relating to the design of randomised clinical trials, including: adaptive designs; cluster randomised trials; and statistical methods for evaluating surrogate outcomes. Projects applying statistical methods to data from randomised controlled trials.Christopher.Weir@ed.ac.ukDavid WellerCancer, 'medically unexplained symptoms', and evidence-based primary care; role of primary care in screening, early diagnosis and management.David.Weller@ed.ac.ukJim WilsonGenetics of complex disease: genetic architecture, gene discovery, rare variants, isolated populations, whole genome sequence, homozygosity, Y chromosome, mtDNA, proteomics. Jim.Wilson@ed.ac.ukSarah WildEpidemiology of diabetes and other chronic diseases; Use of routine data for research.Sarah.Wild@ed.ac.ukMark WoolhouseInfectious disease epidemiology.Mark.Woolhouse@ed.ac.ukIngrid YoungSexual and reproductive health, HIV, pharmaceuticals for prevention, emerging health technologies, gender, sexuality, LGBT health, migration, inequalities, health literacy, health activism, qualitative research methods, participatory research, knowledge exchange.Ingrid.Young@ed.ac.ukSteven YuleMy research interests include human factors, multimodal assessment of team performance in high-demand clinical settings, machine learning, robotic surgery, and the use of video, wearable sensors, and automated sensing technologies to assess cognitive, technical, and non-technical skills. More details on projects at www.saberlab.org.steven.yule@ed.ac.ukAcademic staff interested in supervising PhD students should contact the Postgraduate Administrator, Sarah Golightly, sarah.golightly@ed.ac.uk If you are an academic listed above, and would like to amend any details, please contact sarah.golightly@ed.ac.uk This article was published on 2024-09-24
