Dr Eric De Silva

 

I am a member of the Evolutionary Epidemiology group in the MRC Centre for Outbreak Analysis and Modelling in the Department Infectious Disease Epidemiology. My research involves understanding how evolutionary changes at the genetic sequence level interact with those at the epidemiological scale. 

I am a physicist by training (BSc Physics at Queen Mary). After a masters project in experimental astronomy and studies in planetary geology I completed a doctorate in extragalactic astrophysics in the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge (PhD, Darwin College).

I subsequently moved to University College London to work on statistical and population genetics. Following this I was a postdoctoral reasearch assistant in Professor Michael Stumpf's Theoretical Systems Biology group at Imperial College, carrying out research in bioinformatics and on biological networks.

With an interest in science communication I joined Sense About Science, an organisation that promotes evidence-based science in the media and Parliament as their Science Liason Officer.

Missing research I rejoined academia working with Dr J Krishnan in the Centre for Process Systems Engineering in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College where we developed mathematical models of protein synthesis.

I am also interested in the burgeoning field of astrobiology and organised the first Astrobiology and Early Evolution meeting at Imperial College and was formerly membership secretary of the Astrobiology Society of Britain.