Members
Academic staff
Dr Alex Best
Ecology & evolution of infectious disease.
My research focuses on the dynamics of infectious disease. I model interactions between hosts and their parasites at a range of biological scales, from how bacteria overcome the human immune response, to the impacts of temporal and spatial structure to the population dynamics of disease, to exploring the feedbacks that shape the co-evolution of host defence and parasite infectivity.
Prof. Paul Blackwell
Statistical ecology, particularly movement ecology; Bayesian statistics; inference for random processes.
I primarily work on models and statistical methods for wildlife movement, particularly in continuous time, including collective movement and the relationship between movement and resource selection. I am also interested in statistical methods for ensembles of models, motivated by applications to marine ecosystems.
Prof. Alexander Fletcher
Mathematical biology, morphogenesis, tissue dynamics.
My research is focused primarily on understanding the form and function of developing tissues using mathematical and quantitative approaches. Elucidating the mechanisms underlying these processes help improve our understanding of embryogenesis, tissue renewal and wound healing, and potentially impact on tissue engineering and cancer treatment strategies.
Prof. Jonathan Potts
Mathematical biology, movement ecology, spatial ecology, partial differential equations.
My work focuses predominantly on spatially-explicit modelling of ecological phenomena. Most of my research is driven by a few fundamental questions: Can we construct techniques to help predict the effects of future environmental change on the ability of animal populations to survive? How can we infer the nature of animal interaction mechanisms, both with each other and their environment, from movement data? How do complex systems of animal movements and interactions give rise to emergent population-level patterns?
Research associates
Dr Raj Hossein
Mathematical biology, biophysics, soft condensed matter physics.
I am interested in the broad field of biophysics and soft condensed matter physics. My current research focuses on the mathematical modeling of developing tissues. Experimental evidence suggests that in many developing tissues, cells become planar polarised. It is important to understand how planar polarity is established from the molecular to tissue scale and how this controls tissue dynamics.
Supervisor: Alexander Fletcher
Mr Jack Jennings
Mathematical biology, cryobiology, astrophysics, quantum physics.
My current work focuses on the modelling of developing tissues, specifically, the planar polarity of cells during early development of tissue. Pinning down the mechanisms and biophysical processes that facilitate such structure is key to the greater understanding of tissue development, healing and renewal. My previous research focused on the use of mathematical modelling, agent-based simulation and machine learning to improve processes such as the cryopreservation of cells in suspension and diagnosis of dementia patients.
Supervisor: Alexander Fletcher
Dr Min Tao
Mathematical biology, machine learning.
My current work blends mechanistic biophysical modelling with machine learning approaches. In particular, I am using multi-fidelity fusion to efficiently infer epithelial cell mechanics. My previous postdoctoral research focused on developing advanced digital tools for enhancing the development and operation of RNA vaccine and therapeutics production processes.
Supervisors: Alexander Fletcher and Wei Xing
PhD students
Nesreen Abuoshlleh
Mathematical ecology, movement ecology, and spatial ecology.
My work revolves around understanding the effect of animal movements and interactions on spatial population dynamics, using mathematical modelling. My initial aim is to understand the emergence of segregated home ranges from resource sharing: first by considering immobile consumables (i.e. plants) then moving prey (i.e. animals). Ultimately, we will use the latter scenario to understand how the landscape of fear (for mobile prey) emerges, what it might look like under different ecological scenarios, and how it affects demographic dynamics.
Supervisor: Jonathan Potts
Abdulmajeed Alharbi
Mathematical ecology, movement ecology, and spatial ecology.
My research of interest is around modeling and inferring stochastic processes driven by ecological applications. Especially, I am working on developing statistical methods for detecting the changepoints in an animal trajectories and inferring what influences an animal to change its direction.
Supervisors: Jonathan Potts and Paul Blackwell
Eloise Bray
Statistical movement ecology.
This project focuses on modelling the central place foraging behaviour of seabirds, aiming to understand how it is affected by anthropogenic environmental change such as the construction of offshore wind turbines.
Supervisors: Paul Blackwell, Alison Poulston, Adam Butler (BioSS), Francis Daunt (CEH), Esther Jones (BioSS), Kate Searle (CEH).
Dominic Grainger
Statistical movement ecology.
This project looks at ways to improve the application of continuous-time movement models, through improved methodology, algorithms and approximations.
Supervisors: Paul Blackwell and Alison Poulston
Ryan Grossman
Host-parasite coevolution.
My current research interests focus on population and ecological dynamics of infectious disease systems. In particular, I will be working on the evolutionary modelling of host-parasite associations, concentrating on the coevolution of hosts and their parasites which infect them. Factors I will take into account are, but not limited to, spatial structure, and various trade-offs that arise as a result of the host developing costly resistive strategies against invading parasites. After completing my undergraduate and masters studies in Mathematics at the University of Manchester, I am very happy to join the University of Sheffield, and this great research group.
Supervisor: Alex Best
Poppy Jeffries
Mathematical ecology; foraging theory.
I am developing mathematical models of seabird foraging behaviour in a vast, seemingly featureless, ocean environment. Here individuals gain partial knowledge of their environment, which drives a trade-off between exploring and exploiting the environment. An individual's position on this trade-off is influenced by their personality. My research aims to explore the foraging success of individual personalities, and how this will change as uncertainty in environmental conditions increases.
Supervisors: Jonathan Potts and Samantha Patrick (University of Liverpool).
Megan Oliver
Ecology & evolution of infectious disease.
I am developing mathematical models to research host-parasite relationships when multiple infection is present. This means that the host can be infected by more than one parasite strain simultaneously. A key question in my research is looking at whether the host can successfully multi-task to overcome this type of infection.
Supervisors: Alex Best and Helen Leggett (University of East Anglia)
Visiting researchers
Dr Michael Clerx
Mathematical biology, cardiac cell and channel electrophysiology.
My research focuses on cardiac electrophysiology: the bioelectrical processes that start at the subcellular level but eventually give rise to the coordinated contractions of our hearts. The models we use to study this process are necessarily complex, which creates problems for parameter estimation, quantification of uncertainty, variability, and heterogeneity, as well as reproducible sharing of methods and results.
Dr Ian Groves
Mathematical biology, AI/ML.
I am a Research Data Scientist working at the Alan Turing Institute in the area of Defence & Security. My work involves the application of AI/ML techniques to complex datasets. Prior to this position, I completed a PhD and postdoctoral research in the Sheffield Mathematical Biology group under the supervision of Alexander Fletcher and experimental collaborators. I maintain an ongoing interest in using AI/ML to study biological pattern formation.
Dr Stan Strawbridge
Stem cell biology.
I am a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow, based at Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, working at the interface of experimental and theoretical biology. I am interested in how stem cells make decisions, the formation of signalling gradients in the embryo, and the transcription factor networks governing cell states. I study developmental programs in both the mouse and human systems using the tools of fluorescence and super-resolution microscopy, RNA sequencing, dynamical systems modelling, and machine learning.
Honorary members
Alumni
Dr Valeria Giunta
Mathematical ecology, movement ecology, and spatial ecology.
Valeria undertook postdoctoral research with Jonathan Potts on mathematical models in ecology, focusing on multi-species aggregation equations describing movement and interactions between different populations. Valeria left Sheffield to take up a Lectureship in the Department of Mathematics at Swansea University.
Dr Ian Groves
Developmental biology, machine learning.
Ian's doctoral research, with Alexander Fletcher and and Marysia Placzek (School of Biosciences), combined experimental approaches with machine learning to gain insights into early brain development. He then undertook postdoctoral research with Alexander Fletcher on applications of equation learning methods to biological pattern formation.
Dr Priya Narayanan
Priya worked with Nasreen Akhtar (Department of Oncology and Metabolism) and Alexander Fletcher on tissue morphogenesis, combining experimental and modelling approaches to explore the spatial organisation of the mammary gland. After completing her PhD, Priya obtained a Research Scientist position at Mogrify in Cambridge.
Dr Prerna Singh
Prerna worked with Alex Best on the evolution of host-parasite interactions, developing mathematical models incorporating the theory of adaptive dynamics to study evolutionary dynamics of the host within different ecological frameworks. After completing her PhD, Prerna went on to study the evolution of host-microbiome-parasite interactions as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Princeton University.
Larra Trinidad
Larra worked with David Strutt (School of Biosciences) and Alexander Fletcher on tissue patterning, combining experimental and modelling approaches to explore the roles of the Fat-Dachsous planar polarity pathway and cell mechanics during Drosophila wing morphogenesis. After completing her PhD, Larra undertook a short Postdoctoral Research Associate position in the Strutt lab.