Dr Chris Banks

Core Scientist (Research Fellow)

Biography

Background

I am a computer scientist and computational/mathematical modeller and currently a Research Fellow (Core Scientist) at The Roslin Institute (University of Edinburgh). Over my career, my research has focussed on the computational modelling of systems to help improve the understanding of the natural and synthetic world.

My current research focuses on developing veterinary epidemiological models for UK agricultural disease. This includes computational modelling of disease transmission based on real-world scenarios, as well the analysis for understanding the associated risk factors and the mitigation of disease spread. More recently, my research has contributed to the response to the coronavirus pandemic and advising Public Health Scotland. I also assist with the management of our group, its data, models, and outputs.

Current specific topics of interest include: detailed individual-based models using distributed / cloud computation; Inference of model parameters with Bayesian techniques (e.g. ABC); Machine learning models for exploring large parameter spaces with environmental, phylogenetic, and risk factor features; frameworks, languages, and tools for building epidemic models.

My background (PhD) is in formal languages and logics for expressing and querying models and have a longer-term vision to develop these techniques for epidemic models.

View all 8 publications on Research Explorer

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