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UCL Marmot Prince Mahidol Fellows

About the Fellows

Dr. Amanda M. Simanek (2020) 
Dr. Amanda M. Simanek (2020)

Dr. Amanda M. Simanek is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology in the Joseph J. Zilber School of Public Health at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, in Milwaukee, WI, USA. Her research interests include understanding social patterning of infectious disease, examining links between infectious and chronic disease and identifying novel biologic pathways by which socioeconomic disadvantage contributes to poor health across the lifecourse and across generations.

Amanda is currently funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities for a study examining the association between maternal socioeconomic disadvantage during pregnancy, adverse birth outcomes and inflammatory response at birth.  As a UCL Marmot Prince Mahidol Fellow she assessed the role that prenatal socioeconomic disadvantage may play in shaping long-term health of offspring via alterations to the neonatal epigenome among 948 mothers and babies in the Born in Bradford cohort. 

View Amanda's full publication list.

If you would like to contact Dr. Simanek about her research, email: simaneka@uwm.edu.

Marciane Kessler (2019) 
Marciane Kessler (2019)

Marciane Kessler is a Nurse with a background in Public Health, and a PhD student at Federal University of Pelotas in the posgraduate Program in Nursing school. Marciane is interested in the impact of social inequalities on older adults' health and mortality. Her time at UCL IHE, as a UCL Marmot Prince Mahidol Fellow, focussed on research in this area.

Marciane examined social inequalities and health inequities and how they influence survival and mortality in older adults in Brazil and England; a comparative study between the two cohorts. The research examined how health inequities differ between elderly from Brazil and England, considering particularity from social and economic contexts. The study offers evidence to develop more appropriate policies to promote equity in health in the elderly population in Brazil and also learn with the experience from England.

Prince Mahidol Fellowship outcomes:

In March 2020 Marciane published her work at the research journal, Scientific Report:  Modifiable risk factors for 9-year mortality in older English and Brazilian adults: The ELSA and SIGa-Bagé ageing cohorts.

Marciane was a part of the BMJ Leaders in Healthcare Conference, 17–20 November 2020, and presented her abstract Family health strategy and health equity among older adults.

In May 2021 Marciane published Family Health Strategy, Primary Health Care, and Social Inequalities in Mortality Among Older Adults in Bagé, Southern Brazil  at the American Journal of Public Health. 

If you would like to contact Marciane about her research, email: marciane.kessler@hotmail.com

Dr Manav Vyas (2019) 
Dr Manav Vyas (2019)

Manav Vyas is a neurologist and a PhD student in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto.  He is interested in studying social inequalities in neurological and cardiovascular health, particularly focusing on immigrant ethnic communities.  He completed his undergraduate medical training from Gujarat University, India, a Master’s of Science in Epidemiology at the Western University, Canada, followed by clinical training in neurology at the University of Toronto, Canada. 

His PhD project, titled “The association between immigration status and stroke incidence, care and outcomes”  used linked administrative databases in Ontario, Canada and highlight health inequalities between immigrants and long-term residents.  As a UCL Marmot Mahidol Fellow, he undertook a similar project to his PhD using UK-based data. 

Prince Mahidol Fellowship Outcomes:

In October 2020, following his PMF Fellowship, Manav published Cardiovascular disease recurrence and long-term mortality in a tri-ethnic British cohort at BMJ Heart.

View Myav's full Publication list.

If you would like to contact Manav about his research, email: manav.vyas@mail.utoronto.ca 

Dr Francisca Roman (2018-2019) 
Dr Francisca Roman (2018-2019)

Francisca Roman has lectured in the Department of Psychology, Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco Chile, since 2002. She is interested in the influences of social contexts on young people's drinking patterns. She recently finished her PhD in Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London where she examined the role of school socioeconomic environment in adolescent drinking patterns in relation to parental and peer factors.

Her project as a Prince Mahidol Fellow for 2018-2019 aimed at examining area-level deprivation influences on alcohol use in young people in Chile. Using nationally representative cross-sectional data on substance use, she  examined whether young people’s drinking patterns cluster within areas of residence and whether drinking patterns are related to area-level deprivation.

Prince Mahidl Fellowship Outcomes:

Conference presentation delivered at The 45th Annual Alcohol Epidemiology Symposium of the Kettil Bruun Society (KBS) in June 2019.

If you would like to contact Francisca about her research email: maria.roman.13@ucl.ac.uk 

Dr Flavia Sesti (2018-2019) 
Dr Flavia Sesti (2018-2019)

Flavia Sesti has been an Italian NHS civil servant, since 2010 and an active member of the Italian Society of Migration Medicine, since 2016. She is interested in health equity and migrant health. She recently completed her PhD with honours in Public Health at Sapienza University of Rome, spending 6 months at the UCL IHE, where she examined the role of intersectoral policies in tackling inequities in migrant health. 

Her project as a Prince Mahidol Fellow aimed at investigating how health outcomes are influenced by socio-economic position among migrants and Italians. Particularly, its scope is to examine how health inequities differ between migrants and host population in order to offer evidence for policymakers to develop more appropriate policies for tackling inequalities in society as a whole.

If you would like to contact Flavia about her research, email: flavia.sesti.16@ucl.ac.uk 

About the Fellowship

In 2015 Professor Sir Michael Marmot was awarded the Prince Mahidol Award for his services to Public Health.

His award was presented at the Prince Mahidol Award Conference (PMAC) entitled 'Global Health Post 2015: Accelerating Equity' at the Centara Grand & Bangkok Convention Centre.

The award included a generous financial prize, kindly donated by Professor Sir Marmot to the UCL Institute of Health Equity, to fund a number of research fellowships designed to help develop the next cadre of researchers working in the area of inequalities in health, whilst building strategic global links between UCL and other institutions worldwide.

 

Read more about the award and how to apply at this link