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Professor Michelle Morris

Professor Michelle Morris

Profile

I’m an interdisciplinary researcher with a background spanning: health informatics, geography, nutritional epidemiology and health economics. My primary research interests are how new and emerging forms of data and data science methods can be best utilised to understand diet and lifestyle and their impacts on population health and planetary health. I am a Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute at the British Library in London and the Academic Chair for the LIDA Data Science Development Programme.

Graduating with a neuroscience degree in 2002, I began a career in health informatics, working in a graduate position at EMIS health, one of the UK's leading healthcare clinical system providers, where I gained international project management experience. I returned to study for a MSc, equipping me in statistics and epidemiology training (2009) and completed an interdisciplinary PhD investigating 'Spatial analysis of dietary cost patterns and implications for health' (2013), followed by postdoctoral positions in both nutritional epidemiology and consumer data research. 

Currently, I lead the Nutrition and Lifestyle Analytics team at Leeds, focused on the use of new forms of 'big' and spatial data in health research, working closely with industry partners on food and activity data. I lead a programme of activity funded by the Institute of Grocery Distribution to promote healthy and sustainable diets and am a co-investigator at the ESRC funded Consumer Data Research Centre in Leeds. I am the academic lead on the Priority Places for Food Index used in the Which? Affordable Food For All campaign.  

I am a co-investigator on two related UKRI Transforming UK Food System awards, FIO Food and DIO Food, leading data and evaluation work packages within these awards.

Responsibilities

  • Nutrition and Lifestyle Analytics team lead
  • Academic Chair of the Leeds Institute for Data Analytics Data Science Development Programme
  • School of Food Science and Nutrition Impact Champion
<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Any research projects I'm currently working on will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>

Qualifications

  • BSc (hons) Neuroscience
  • MSc Nutrition Obesity and Health
  • PhD Spatial analysis of dietary cost patterns and implications for health

Professional memberships

  • Association for Study of Obesity
  • Society for Social Medicine

Current postgraduate researchers

<h4>Postgraduate research opportunities</h4> <p>We welcome enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from all around the world who are interested in PhD study. Our <a href="https://phd.leeds.ac.uk">research opportunities</a> allow you to search for projects and scholarships.</p>