Core Scientist (Research Fellow)

Roslin Institute
Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies
University of Edinburgh

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@DrCJBanks on Twitter

About

I am a computer scientist and computational/mathematical modeller and currently a Core Scientist at the Roslin Institute. Over my career, my research has focussed on the computational modelling of systems to help improve improve the understanding of the natural and synthetic world.


My current research focuses on developing veterinary epidemiological models for UK agricultural disease. This includes computational modelling of disease transmission based on real-world scenarios, as well the analysis for understanding the associated risk factors and the mitigation of disease spread. More recently, my research has contributed to the response to the coronavirus pandemic and advising Public Health Scotland. I also assist with the management of the Kao group, its data, models, and outputs.


Current specific topics of interest include: detailed individual-based models using distributed / cloud computation; Inference of model parameters with Bayesian techniques (e.g. ABC); Machine learning models for exploring large parameter spaces with environmental, phylogenetic, and risk factor features; frameworks, languages, and tools for building epidemic models.


My background (PhD) is in formal languages and logics for expressing and querying models and have a longer-term vision to develop these techniques for epidemic models.