Committee

I currently lead numerous research methods related modules, with a heavy focus on applied statistics to Master’s (qualified, distance learner) dentists, optometrists, and in-person undergraduate audiologists at Aston University. Previous teaching experiences have included teaching undergraduate medical students at the University of Sheffield, and teaching on CPD short courses as part of CASC (UCL). My main passion for teaching statistics to more applied students stems from the challenge of “translating” the theory to everyday, useful language; in addition to building on the good stats teaching I’ve received in the past (and learning from the bad!).

I am responsible for teaching applied statistics across several areas, including medicine, dentistry, biomedical sciences, public health and planning. My teaching extends to undergraduates,  postgraduates, and occasionally, staff members. Currently, I run a statistical support hub for my faculty, involving one-to-one drop-in sessions, training courses and development of statistical resources. I love teaching statistics, as it allows me to engage with a broad audience - statistics courses, akin to Stats 101, manage to find their way into nearly every academic discipline.

I am a Senior Lecturer in the Biostatistics Research Group, Population Health Sciences Institute, Newcastle University. In 2020, I became lead for the Health Statistics module on the Masters in Public Health – this role re-ignited my passion for teaching (although as an applied statistician who collaborates widely, awareness of statistical literacy and careful communication have always been at the forefront).  I’m loving the teaching and exploring ways to better convey statistical concepts.  For me, it’s also important to be approachable and provide a supportive learning environment for my students, some of which start the course feeling worried and anxious.  Pedagogical research is a recent interest, but something I’d like to progress!

Mona Kanaan is a Professor in Applied Health Research and Statistics at the University of York  and a Senior Fellow of HEA, a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society(RSS) and ex-chair of the RSS Medical Section.

Mona has over twenty-three years of experience in the design and delivery of post-graduate applied statistics modules and programmes and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She is the Director of Post-Graduate Education and chairs the post-graduate teaching committee at the Department, has supervised numerous PhD students to successful completion, and acts as a mentor to early career researchers. 

She is passionate about capacity strengthening in research in low-middle income countries and the professional recognition and career development for applied statisticians working in fields related to health and social care.

Mona has extensive experience in designing and conducting studies in public health and social sciences. Mona uses innovative designs such as the stepped-wedge clustered randomised controlled trials.  She has worked on tobacco control and maternity related studies in low-middle income countries, including Bangladesh, India, Lebanon, Pakistan, South Africa, and Syria.

I am a Senior Lecturer in Medical Statistics in the Cardiff School of Dentistry. My background is Biology and my previous research interests are on Seabird Ecology. Through my research career I developed an interest in Statistics and I have also become passionate about teaching and about Pedagogy, as a discipline. I believe in learning through positive experiences and relationships and put a lot of effort into creating that learning environment for my students.

I have a broad range of research interests in Biology, Medicine and Dentistry, and Pedagogy and I enjoy applying statistical methods to different contexts and challenges. I collaborate widely within the Cardiff Dental School, the University and externally. I co-hosted Burwalls 2020 and 2021 in Cardiff and co-edited the subsequent book of proceedings "Teaching Biostatistics in Medicine and Allied Health Sciences", published by Springer in 2023 (https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-26010-0).  

I am a lecturer in Medical Statistics at the Department of Health Sciences in York (UK), with over 10 years of experience in research and teaching. 

I predominantly teach introductory and advanced statistics to postgraduate students on our Masters and PhD programmes but also medical students taking bespoke modules. In my research, I am involved in the design, statistical support and analysis of randomised trials as part of York Trials Unit, especially in the areas of mental health and orthopaedics, both in the UK and Southeast Asia.

I really enjoy supporting students discovering statistics for themselves and overcome perceived barriers. As such, Burwalls is a fantastic forum to share and promote best practice and innovative approaches, and I am proud to be involved in facilitating the group’s activities. 

I am Lecturer of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology of the University of Leicester. I teach introductory statistics and epidemiology to medical students and postgraduate research students. Previously I have also taught business statistics and econometrics in Australia. I also serve as a dissertation supervisor for undergraduate and postgraduate students at University of Leicester and University of Cambridge.

I am a research methodologist working in Dundee Dental Hospital and School.  My work interests revolve around making statistics accessible to newcomers, empiricism, teaching sound research methodology, research integrity and research ethics.  I devote particular attention to the Philosophy of Science as I’ve found that many seemingly high-level problems in research aren’t high-level at all: they stem from basic misunderstandings in how to design experiments.  My background is in Cognitive Psychology.

Hilary Watt is teaching fellow at Imperial College London. She is published author of innovative interpretations and graphs that promote conceptual understanding of confidence intervals and of p-values. She leads collaborative research with data from around 60 medical statistics educators. She aligned her teaching methods with the agenda to overcome common poor standards of interpretation in the statistical literature. She creates R resources aligned with the workflow, with named feedback that they save time when preparing data for analysis. She is also trial statistician co-applicant for NIHR studies and is an active supervisor and statistical collaborator.

Jamie is a Senior Lecturer in Biostatistics in the Centre for Biostatistics at the University of Manchester. His primary area of research is in diagnostic and prognostic prediction, combining methodological research and application in areas including musculoskeletal health, trauma, cancer, sports medicine and covid-19. Jamie is interested in the teaching and learning of statistics in the biological, medical and health sciences, and the effective communication of statistics to all audiences. Jamie is a member of the Teaching Statistics Section of the Royal Statistical Society (RSS) and co-leads the Improving Statistical Literacy working group of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Statistics Group.

Oluwafemi Oyamakin is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Statistics (Biostatistics Unit), University of Ibadan, Nigeria. His PhD, received from the University of Ibadan, was in Biometry where new mathematical growth models were developed for modelling complex biological processes such as cancer, brain tumor, forest vegetation among others. He has over 15 years of experience in research and teaching. During that time, he has written and co-authored nearly 50 peer-refereed journal publications. His research interests include Biostatistics, Modelling and Health Data Science.

Dr. Oluwafemi Samuel Oyamakin is also a member of the research team at the University of Ibadan Research Foundation (UI-Research Foundation). He is currently a Senior Research Fellow working with the research team on efforts to use data science to elucidate the impacts of Covid-19 and the Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPI) on Adolescents and Youths in 9 African countries.  The outputs of the research have been valuable in developing policy briefs with options to guide leaders and decision makers on meeting the challenges of Covid-19 in the countries.

Philip Sedgwick is Professor in Medical Statistics & Medical Education at St. George’s, University of London. His PhD, received from the University of London, was in the applied research area of sleep and its disorders. He has over 35 years of experience in research and teaching. During that time, he has written and co-authored nearly 150 peer-refereed journal publications and book chapters in the biomedical, healthcare and clinical sciences, plus medical education. His research interests include early phase clinical trials.

In 2009 Philip was commissioned to write weekly for the leading international general medical journal BMJ. This he did in an educational capacity on topics in medical statistics, epidemiology, research methods, research ethics and clinical communication skills. He produced over 300 articles that appeared in a series called “Endgames”.

Ram Bajpai is lecturer in Biostatistics at the School of Medicine, Keele University. He received his doctoral degree in Medical Statistics from ICMR National Institute of Medical Statistics, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, New Delhi, India. He has over ten years of experience in teaching and research. He also published over 100 peer-reviewed journal publications. He is listed as top 1% reviewers in 2019 of Cross-field science domain by Publons, Web of Science. He continues to work in the field of cross-domain applications of the statistical and epidemiological methodologies with a particular interest in quantitative epidemiology, prognostic research, and meta-analysis.

Rhys is an internationally recognised educational leader with extensive experience in curriculum development and curriculum theory, statistics education, and engaging students in small and large classroom settings (offline and online). He also has extensive experience of using digital literacy skills and learning analytics to enhance the student experience, using digital platforms to assess student engagement and interaction. Rhys was the National Representative for the New Zealand Association for Gifted Children from 2020-2022, and the Director of the Science Scholars at the University of Auckland from 2018-2021. Rhys is also a member of the Royal Statistical Societies teaching section as well as the Education Policy Advisory Group. Both committees work on a national and international level to improve the teaching of statistics and data science in schools, universities, and relevant industry sectors.

I earned my PhD in Bayesian Statistics from Queen Mary University of London in 2011. Following that, I served as a postdoctoral research associate at Imperial College London for a couple of years. Subsequently, I held positions at various national and international institutions before joining UCL's Queen Square Institute of Neurology in 2017. Currently, I hold the position of Associate Professor in Medical Statistics there. My primary research focuses on statistical methods in neuroscience, while I also investigate methods for teaching medical statistics to non-statisticians.

I am a Senior Lecturer in Medical Statistics at the University of Bristol and Deputy Education Director at the Bristol Medical School. I have a 25-year career delivering applied statistics and epidemiology teaching to doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals. I currently co-lead a unit on introductory statistics and epidemiology delivered to postgraduate students on our MSc programmes and co-lead a short course on linear and logistic regression delivered to healthcare researchers and postgraduate research students.

I enjoy working with students from diverse academic backgrounds and helping them to understand the value of statistics and how to apply statistical methods to their work.

I am a biostatistician and an academic staff of the Epidemiology Department, Faculty of Public Health, Institute of Health, Jimma University in Ethiopia. I have been teaching biostatistics postgraduate public health, medical, biomedical, nurses, midwiferies, pharmacists, orthopedics, dentistry, anesthesiology, etc. in my institute. I also supervised postgraduate public health professionals in my department. I have published more than 20 articles in reputable peer-reviewed journals and all are medical and public health data.  Teaching statistics on biomedical data and in health-related areas is a blessing since it is an ideal place to apply various statistical methods.