Ash Myall awarded Alan Turing Institute Program Enrichment community award

Ash Myall, PhD researcher

PhD student to collaborate with technical experts across the Turing community on modelling antimicrobial resistance in healthcare acquired infections

Ash Myall, PhD student funded through the Medical Research Foundation, EPSRC Centre for Mathematics of Precision Healthcare and NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare associated infections and Antimicrobial resistance (AMR), was awarded a place on the highly competitive  Alan Turing Institute PhD Enrichment Program.

The Alan Turing Institute is the leading institute for computational research in the UK. The scheme is open to all PhD students in the UK. Ash will be dedicating his award to working on theoretical advances of and validation transmission models for some of the most resistant and complex healthcare-acquired pathogens. 

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is recognised as a threat to society, health systems and individuals across the world. However, while the mechanisms leading to AMR and drug resistant infections are biological, conditions which allow them to flourish are also social, cultural, political and economic. Research tackling AMR therefore requires a highly multidisciplinary approach and global collaboration.

Commenting on his award, Ash Myall said, "Despite a large and expanding toolbox of epidemiological models, how we capture transmission of more complex spreading processes, like antimicrobial resistance, is still limited. Through working with technical experts across the Turing Community, I will expand methodology and explore new theoretical classes of models to accurately capture AMR transmission in hospitals. Together, advances in this area have the potential to shed new light on transmission dynamics and improve control strategies with data-driven modelling."

This exciting enrichment program is an exceptional opportunity to widen the methodical scope of Ash’s PhD, build independence, and learn ethical research practice in the AI space. The Turing enrichment program will contribute to Ash's establishment as a field leader in computational infection prevention.