Prof Stacey Smith?

Stacey Smith? (the question mark is part of her name) is a professor of disease modelling at the University of Ottawa in Canada. Using mathematics, she studies infectious diseases such as HIV, malaria, human papillomavirus, COVID-19, influenza, neglected tropical diseases... and zombies!

She’s published over 130 academic articles; is a winner of a Guinness World Record for her work on modelling a zombie invasion; was the winner of the 2015 Mathematics Ambassador award, given by Canada's Partners in Research association; won the 2018 Society for Mathematical Biology Distinguished Service Award for exceptional contribution to the field of mathematical biology and its advancement outside of research; was awarded a 2021 prize for her outstanding contributions to the advancement of diversity, equity, inclusion and justice at the Society for Mathematical Biology Annual Meeting; and in 2025 was made a fellow of the Society for Mathematical Biology, the youngest person to ever do so. 

She was the first University of Ottawa employee to transition... but won't be the last! Outside of her day job, she has more than 25 books to her name, including Nonmonogamy and Group Dynamics (Thornapple Press), The Top Ten Diseases of All Time (uOttawa Press), Bookwyrm (ATB Publishing), Who is the Doctor, Who’s 50 and The Doctors Are In (ECW Press), Look at the Size of That Thing! (Pencil Tip Publishing), as well as a Black Archive on Doctor Who and the Silurians (Obverse Books), guides to the wonderful world of Doctor Who. 

She's also the editor extraordinaire of the Outside In series of pop-culture reviews with a twist (ATB Publishing), covering Doctor Who, Star Trek, Buffy, Angel, Firefly and The X-Files. Oh, and she’s the world’s leading expert on the transmission of Bieber Fever, but let’s not worry about that one.