Jillian Gauld

Jillian has now completed her PhD with CHICAS!

I am a second-year PhD student in the Statistics and Epidemiology program at CHICAS, working under Peter Diggle, Jon Read, and Nick Feasey (LSTM). My PhD is being funded by the Institute for Disease Modeling in Seattle, USA, with travel funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

My thesis is on methods to investigate risk factors and transmission patterns of typhoid fever in Blantyre, Malawi. My work uses both statistical and dynamic modeling approaches to address this topic. Spatial data and genetic sequences have been collected for this project, allowing for a unique approach to understanding typhoid epidemiology. I plan to apply the results from these analyses to inform environmental sampling and control strategies for the disease.

I currently have a Master of Science in Population and Public Health from the University of British Columbia, along with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Biology from Queen’s University. I received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research for my master’s thesis, which focused on the development of contact networks in the hospital setting, and modeling the transmission of respiratory pathogens between healthcare workers. Before my current appointment, I was an environmental health scientist at the BC Centre for Disease Control in Vancouver, Canada.