Jessie Khaki, currently a pre-doctoral intern with both the Salmonella and Enteric Disease research group and the statistical support unit at MLW and a lecturer in biostatistics at the College of Medicine, has recently been awarded a 2019 Commonwealth scholarship to study towards a PhD in statistics at Lancaster University, United Kingdom.

 

Jessie will be based at the Centre for Health Informatics Computing and Statistics (CHICAS), within the Faculty of Medicine at Lancaster. Her primary supervisor will be Dr. Emanuele Giorgi whose expertise lies in developing and applying statistical methods for spatiotemporal disease modelling. The supervision team also consists of Dr. Marc Henrion (MLW), Dr. Christopher Jewell (Lancaster University), Professor Melita Gordon (MLW) and Professor Mavuto Mukaka (COM). Jessie’s work will focus on developing spatiotemporal methods for modelling typhoid incidence and transmission in Blantyre district, using data from the STRATAA and TyVAC studies.

 

“I am extremely honoured and overjoyed to have been awarded this prestigious scholarship. I am very excited to embark on the next chapter of my research journey.” said Jessie, when asked about her reaction to the award. Jessie is also profoundly grateful to Dr. Marc Henrion and Professor Melita Gordon for the mentorship and support provided during the internship and the PhD application process. She is also thankful to MLW for creating a supportive environment for undertaking her predoctoral fellowship and the MLW training funding that has supported her during this time.