Communicable Diseases Policy Research Group

Richard Coker, Professor 

Richard Coker trained in medicine at St. Mary´s Hospital, London and, in 1994, became consultant physician to the hospital and senior lecturer at Imperial College School of Medicine. His interests include communicable diseases, in particular sexually transmitted diseases, HIV, and tuberculosis.   In 1997, as a Harkness Fellow, he spent a year at Columbia School of Public Health in New York, USA, researching the causes and responses to the epidemic of tuberculosis that city witnessed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. His book, From Chaos to sults from this work. He subsequently worked as a Wellcome Research Associate researching public health legislative responses to infectious disease threats.In recent years he has worked in India, Russia, Ukraine, Tajikistan, and SE Asia on public health responses to support control of infectious diseases. He joined the School in 1999 as a Research Fellow before becoming Senior Lecturer in 2001, Reader in 2005, and Professor of Public Health in 2009.He currently heads the Communicable Diseases Policy Research Group (CDPRG) which provides a focus of expertise on the diverse public health problems associated with communicable disease control internationally. Notable areas of research which have received considerable attention have included health systems analysis, analysis of strategic planning, law as a tool to support communicable disease control, policy analysis, and development and ranking of indicators to assess performance. (more)

Sandra Mounier-Jack, Lecturer 

I am a Lecturer at the Department of Public Health and Policy, whose current research projects include evaluations of health policy on the control of communicable diseases including pandemic flu, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. Before joining the LSHTM, I was a project officer for the European Commission and was heading the health cooperation programme of the EU in the Russian Federation. I developed monitored and evaluated major technical assistance projects on communicable diseases control in the FSU. 

I am currently an advisor to the UK House of Lords for a committee on the work of intergovernmental organizations in the control of infectious diseases (more)

James Rudge, Lecturer

James joined CDPRG as an Overseas Research Fellow in June 2009. Based in Bangkok, he is currently involved in a number of projects including a resource gap analysis for pandemic preparedness in South East Asia (AsiaFluCap), and case studies on the interactions and integration between Global Fund-supported programmes and health systems.

Before joining CDPRG, James completed his PhD in Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Imperial College London, researching the zoonotic transmission and population genetics of schistosomiasis in China and the Philippines. Prior to this he gained a BSc in Microbiology and MSc in Modern Epidemiology, also at Imperial. He has fieldwork experience in both parasitological and health systems research in several countries in Asia and Africa, and experience with mathematical modelling and molecular techniques. His interests include using a multi-disciplinary approach to address policy-relevant research questions concerning the epidemiology and control of infectious diseases, particularly zoonoses. (more)

Alexandra Conseil, Research Fellow 

I joined the Department of Global Health and Development in August 2007 as Research Fellow in the Communicable Diseases Policy Research Group. I post-graduated with an MSc in Control of Infectious Diseases from LSHTM (2005) and an MSc in International Health Management from Imperial College Business School (2006). Prior to my postgraduate studies, I worked as a nurse/project coordinator for Médecins Sans Frontières on communicable disease control programmes in DRC, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Chad (2003-2004). I obtained my BScN from Universite Laval in 2001 (Quebec, Canada). My primary and current research focus lies at the legal/public health interface in responses to pandemic influenza in Europe (www.ephln.org). Past research activities include the analysis of EU/EEA national governments' guidance on business continuity planning for pandemic influenza (2007/8, funded by Roche), the evaluation of more than 50 African and European national strategic plans for pandemic influenza (2008, funded by UN-PIC), support for the 4th global progress report on responses to avian influenza (2008, funded by UNSIC), and the development of a case study on integration of HIV and TB into the mainstream health system in Viet Nam (2008/9, funded by the World Bank). (more)

Marco Liverani, Research Fellow

I joined the Health Policy Unit as Research Fellow in the Communicable Diseases Policy Research Group in March 2010. I have a background in social sciences with a focus on political economy of healthcare and biomedicine. 

I am currently conducting a research study on regional mechanisms and infectious diseases in Europe and Asia, funded by the the ASEF Network for Public Health. (more) 

Tom Drake, Research Fellow

Tom joined CDPRG as an Overseas Research Fellow in 2011. He leads an evaluation of investment options for pandemic influenza preparedness in Cambodia and supports a range of other projects within the group.

Prior to this Tom worked on economic evaluations of a range of malaria control interventions in Kenya, Mali, Cameroon, Nigeria and Afghanistan, with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Save The Children. Before moving to operational research he worked in not-for-profit drug discovery at the Medical Research Council UK, including prospective malaria and tuberculosis targets, and briefly on sandfly pheromone synthesis for leishmaniasis control at Rothamsted Research.

Tom’s interests are in applying scientific approaches to inform operational communicable disease control decisions, particularly in resource poor contexts.

Samantha Watson, Research Fellow

Samantha joined CDPRG as a Research Fellow in October 2011. She is currently conducting a study to appraise, model, and inform the Indonesian health system’s ability to cope with sudden, large-scale escalations in patient numbers originating in a disaster or pandemic event.

She is in the final stages of preparing her PhD thesis for submission. Funded by the ESRC, her PhD research addresses India’s political economy of development, and has combined advanced statistical analysis of large-scale secondary datasets with case-study, textual, interview and participatory exercises. Her research interests centre on the political economy of knowledge production, transnational policy transference, and the State. This substantive research agenda is pursued alongside work on research methodology and methods. Previously Samantha has worked as a policy analyst and advisor in central government both in the UK (at the Home Office / Ministry of Justice) and New Zealand (at Services to Maori). She has held various roles with non-governmental organisations based in Bangladesh, Japan and New Zealand.

Aronrag Meeyai, Research Fellow

My research interests include infectious disease dynamics and spatial epidemiology. Before moving to CDPRG I did post-doctoral research and a PhD in the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Imperial College, London focusing on the analysis of seasonal influenza data both in temperate and tropical zones using mechanistic and semi-mechanistic transmission models. 

Prior to my PhD I did an MSc in Modern Epidemiology, focusing on spatial epidemiology, also at Imperial College. Before that I did an MSc in Operational Research, at National Institute of Development Administration, and a BSc in Economics, Kasetsart University, Thailand. 

 Wasamon Sabaiwan, Research Administrator

Wasamon has been working with Communicable Diseases Policy Research Group since 2009. She got Bachelor degree in Hotel Management and Master degree in Public Relations. Before joining CDPRG, she worked as Catering Sales Coordinator in the hotel in Bangkok.