Simon is Professor of Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and a Wellcome Trust senior research fellow. He is currently based in Nairobi at the Kenya Medical Research Institute-Wellcome Trust Research Programme where he coordinates a programme of research on the epidemiology, surveillance and control of negelcted tropical diseases (NTDs) and malaria. Simon has a long-standing interesting in the mapping and spatial modelling of NTDs. Together with Don Bundy, he was the co-founder of the Global Atlas in 1998. Simon is also a member of the Technical Advisory Group of the Partnership for Child Development, with whom this project is co-implemented, and Deputy Editor for PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.
People
GAHI team
Simon Brooker DPhil
Rachel Pullan PhD
Rachel is a Lecturer at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Her work currently supports the development of geostatistical models for predicting infection risk and identifying at-risk populations. She also supports countries and WHO-AFRO in using GAHI maps for decision-making, and has recently been working to update the global estimates of STH with the GBD Project. Rachel's PhD focused on the spatial and genetic epidemiology of parasite co-infection, with fieldwork undertaken in Brazil and Uganda.
Jorge Cano Ortega PhD
Jorge is a Research Assistant who is currently working on a GAHI project modelling the spatial distribution of lymphatic filariasis in Africa. He is also collaborating with the Centre for Neglected Tropical Diseases at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, providing GIS support to African countries implementing NTD control. Jorge has broad experience in using GIS for environmental modelling and has conducted epidemiological and entomological surveys related to vector-borne diseases in Equatorial Guinea and Mozambique. Jorge’s PhD focused on the spatial distribution of tsetse fly populations and risk modelling of sleeping sickness transmission in Equatorial Guinea.
Jennifer Smith MSc
Jennifer is a Research Fellow and PhD student at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Jennifer is primarily working with the International Trachoma Initiative on the Global Atlas of Trachoma and on identifying optimal approaches to trachoma mapping. Jennifer is is also coordinating with GAHI to ensure compatability between mapping initiatives.
Birgit Nikolay Dr.rer.nat.
Birgit is a Research Assistant at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Her work primarily includes data extraction and the creation of maps of lymphatic filariasis distribution and treatment coverage. Previously, Birgit worked in arbovirus research at the Pasteur Institute Dakar, Senegal, and received a doctoral degree in molecular biology from the University of Vienna.
Francis Peel
Francis is the Website and Communications Officer at the Partnership for Child Development (PCD) based at Imperial College London. Francis is responsible for the maintenance of www.thiswormyworld.org and responding to online queries. In his role at Imperial College he is also responsible for PCD's family of school health and nutrition resource websites: www.schoolsandhealth.org; www.child-development.org; www.hgsf-global.org; www.dewormtheworld.org.
Don Bundy PhD
Don is the Coordinator of the African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC) program at the World Bank in Washington D.C.. He helped establish the Global Atlas in 1998 and is currently a technical advisor to the project. Don is also a member of the International Advisory Board of the Partnership for Child Development.
Scientific support
Additional support on modelling is provided by Peter Gething and Simon Hay at the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, and by Archie Clements and Ricardo Soares Magalhaes at the School of Population Health, University of Queensland. Leora Feldstein, Victoria Pelly, Matthew Hall and Carlijn Bogaardt at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine provided additional support peforming data extraction and during the production of survey data and intervention coverage maps.
Web site
Manta Ray Media developed www.thiswormyworld.org and specialise in developing websites, web applications, eLearning and consultancy for organisations which are active in health, biomedical research and international development.