The Boyd Orr Centre for Population and Ecosystem Health

Prof Dan Haydon

Professor of Population Ecology and Epidemiology

Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine
College of Medicine, Veterinary & Life Sciences
Graham Kerr Building
University of Glasgow
Glasgow, G12 8QQ

Tel.: +44 (0)141 330 5843
Email: daniel.haydon@glasgow.ac.uk


Academic History

  • Current: Professor of Population Ecology & Epidemiology (Appointed as Lecturer in 2004, promoted to Professor in 2007 and to Director of Institute in 2010)
  • 2001-2004: PDRA: University of Guelph
  • 1998-2001: PDRA: University of Edinburgh
  • 1996-1998: PDRA: University of British Columbia
  • 1993-1996: PDRA: University of Oxford
  • 1992-1993: PDRA: University of Texas at Austin
  • 1987-1992: Ph.D. (Zoology) University of Texas at Austin
  • 1983-1986: B.Sc. (Biology and Oceanography) University of Southampton

Research Interests

I am interested in just about any ecological process - regardless of the scale at which it occurs.  Whether it is how an RNA virus adopts a particular replication strategy within a single cell, how a malaria or trypanosome parasite is regulated within a host, why some populations cycle, why multiple populations cycle synchronously together, how metapopulations persist, how landscape heterogeneity is maintained by disturbance, or how complexity influences ecological stability .. these are all more and less obviously problems that benefit from a fundamentally ecological and quantitative (if not mathematical) approach. 

Systems approaches to ecology and epidemiology

A modern 'systems' approach that imposes a multi-scale perspective on research formulation is now increasingly advocated and adopted across the biological sciences.  To ecologists, this is how we’ve always studied complexity.  A multi-scale perspective has two major advantages: First, it broadens the community of scientists one deals with in tackling a particular problem, forcing interdisciplinary communication, which of course is always a good thing.  Second, it is often the case that while we have questions about a pattern or process at one scale, data can only, or are most easily gathered, at another.  In these cases, a multi-scale approach in which we use models to link what we see at one scale to predictions at another - is essential.

Science with impact

Although I started off with, and remain fascinated by purely theoretical ecological problems (was MacArthur really right in his 1955 paper? What sort of community dynamics really are the most indeterminate?); I am increasingly persuaded that as scientists we need to deliver on a shorter time-scale.  There is an abundance of fascinating science to be done on and in systems that actually matter to public and animal health, to conservation science, and to the sustainable exploitation of renewable resources.   Now much of my work is quite applied, although I'd always be interested to hear from any potential student or fellow with more abstract interests.

Research teams

A consequence of truly interdisciplinary science is that it requires real teamwork and communication.  My research activities are woven closely together with those of colleagues here in the Institute and throughout the College, the University, and external partners.  The concept of the 'research group' is perhaps dating fast, no single 'group-leader' can possibly encompass the range of skills required for a really modern approach to biological problem solving.  Here, we build specifically formulated teams to address particular problems.  Most of our PhD students are multiply supervised with appropriate combinations of ecologists, epidemiologists, veterinarians, mathematicians, programmers and statisticians.  

The research environment

The organization is a little complex.  We are one of seven research Institutes in the College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences.  But cutting across these Institutes and indeed other Colleges within the University are a number of Centres and coordinate interdisciplinary research.  These are the Boyd Orr Centre for Population and Ecosystem Health, the Scottish Centre for Ecology and the Natural Environment, the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, the Wellcome Trust Centre for Molecular Parasitology, to name just a few.  We also work very closely with a number of external organizations that includes: the James Hutton Institute, Millport Marine Biological Station, the Moredun Research Institute, and the Institute for Animal Health.  The availability of such a broad range of expertize means that we can address a broad range of research questions in new ways.  It makes for a very dynamic and vibrant research environment.


Some examples of our work


Graduate Students

A good fraction of my work is done with other researchers in the Institute (these include Sarah Cleaveland, Heather Ferguson, Katie Hampson, Richard Orton, Richard Reeve).   A lot is also done with PhD students, past and present.  These include:

Current students

  • Caroline Wright (BBSRC). Forensic epidemiology using FMDV complete genome sequencing. (Co-supervised with Dr’s David Paton and Don King at the Institute of Animal Health, Pirbright) (2008-20011).
  • Catherine Higham (Kelvin-Smith Studentship).  Dynamic DNA and human disease: use of mathematical modelling to provide clinical prognoses in myotonic dystrophy (Co-supervised with Darren Monckton and Christina Cobbold) (2008-2011).
  • Gus Cameron  (DTA-BBSRC studentship).  Comparative epidemiology of fox parasites in urban and rural populations (Co-supervised with Louise Matthews) (2008-2012).
  • Jaime Earnest (Kelvin-Smith studentship). Incorporating behavioural responses to health communication into epidemiological models. (Co-supervised with Rebecca Mancy and Kate Reid) (2010-2014).

Completed students

I’ve been very lucky to have some outstanding students in the past.  They have all gone to do interesting things:

  • Eleanor Cottam (BBSRC). The micro-evolution of foot-and-mouth disease virus. (Co-supervised with Dr's David Paton and Don King at the Institute of Animal Health, Pirbright) (2004-2007).
    Eleanor is currently undetaking a BBSRC funded post-doc at University of East Anglia
  • Sunny Townsend  (NERC). Stability and complexity in model ecosystems. (Co-supervised with Louise Matthews) (2005-2008).
    Sunny is currently undertaking post-doctoral research in Tanzania
  • Douglas Kerlin (Macaulay Development Trust). Moorland biodiversity: modeling impacts of policy and land-use change. (Co-supervised with Simon Thirgood and David Miller, MLURI) (2005-2008).
    Douglas is currently undertaking post-doctoral work in Australia
  • Sylvia Anaid Diaz-Palacios (CONACyT) Life history evolution: Nematodes as a model. (Co-supervised with Jan Lindstrom) (2005-2008).
    Anaid is currently undertaking NERC-funded post-doctoral research at Bristol University
  • Hawthorne Beyer (Leverhulme Trust).  Controlling infectious disease in wildlife populations.  (Co-supervised with Sarah Cleaveland and Karen Laurenson, University of Edinburgh) (2006-2009).
    Hawthorne is currently undertaking post-doctoral research at University of Toronto
  • Flavie Vial (University of Glasgow).  Human-wildlife conflicts in Ethiopia: Livestock grazing strategies in semi-protected areas (2006-2009). (Co-supervised with David Macdonald and Claudio Sillero-Zubiri, WILDCRU) (2006-2009).
    Flavie is currently undertaking post-doctoral research at Imperial
  • Elizabeth Masden (Scottish National Heritage).  Assessing cumulative effects of wind farms on bird populations (2007-2010). (Co-supervised with Bob Furness, University of Glasgow) (2007-2010).
    Liz is currently undertaking undertaking post-doctoral research at the University of the Highlands and Islands
  • Annabel Harrison  (NERC-Open Case).  Population dynamics of mountain hares (Co-supervised with Simon Thirgood (now deceased) and Scott Newey) (2008-2011).
    Annabel is now Project Officer for North East Scotland Scottish Wildlife Trust's: Saving Scotland's Red Squirrels project.
  • Alison Mather (Stewart Studentship).  Evolutionary and Ecological Dynamics of Antimicrobial Resistance (Co-supervised with Dominic Mellor) (2007-2011).
    Alison is now undertaking post-doctoral research at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge.
  • Erida Gjini  (Kelvin-Smith Studentship).  Mathematical Modelling of the Evolutionary Dynamics of Extreme Genomic Diversification (Co-supervised with Christina Cobbold Barbara Mable, and Dave Barry) (2007-2011).
    Erida is starting a post-doc in Portugal

Professional Associations

I have served on the editorial boards of Biology Letters (Royal Society, London), the Journal of Applied Ecology, and am a current editor of  the journal, Epidemics

Member of the Wellcome Centre for Molecular Parasitology, British Ecological Society, and the British Lichen Society. Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh


Specific Research Interests

These interests might usefully be described in terms of those I am doing, and then additional areas I'd like to work more in.

Starting with the latter:

  • I am very interested in how to model animal movement using the rapidly developing technologies to tag and track individuals, and how such models of animal movement may better inform the way populations use space.
  • I would like to continue to work on the use of metapopulation models to study epidemiological questions, particularly those focusing on pathogen persistence, synchrony, and Critical Community Size.
  • I would love to become more involved in microbial community ecology and the management of antibiotic susceptibility.
  • I have a long-standing interest in understanding the relationship between stability and complexity in model ecosystems and factors that modulate this relationship, and the origins of ecological indeterminancy.
  • I am very interested in the measurement of pathogen cross-reactivity and the polyclonal antibody response to viruses.
  • I have a latent interest in the spatial ecology of lichens.


Grants

Here is a list of some current grants I'm funded by:

  • EMIDA (UG PI).  EPI-SEQ Molecular epidemiology of epizootic diseases using next generation sequencing technology.  £377,000, 2012-2015.
  • BBSRC (Co-PI). Beyond the consensus: defining the significance of foot and mouth disease viral sequence diversity. (With Dr D. King IAH), £299,814, 2011-2014.
  • Wellcome Trust (co-appl). Why some hosts have high parasite burdens and  the implications for the design of sustainable control strategies (with Dr L. Matthews (PI), Prof. M. Stear), £172,523, 2010-2013.
  • Kelvin-Smith Studentship (co-appl). Incorporating public responses to health communication into epidemiological models (with Dr R. Mancy (PI), Dr K. Reid, U. Glasgow).  £65,000.  3 years from October 2010.
  • MRC (PI).  Understanding how a complex intervention works: designing large-scale vaccination programs (with Dr S Cleaveland, Prof. R Kao). £609,122. 4 years from March 2010.
  • BBSRC/DFID. (co-appl).  Towards the strategic control of endemic foot-and-mouth disease.  (with Dr S Cleaveland (PI) and Dr R. Reeve). £999,189. 4 years from March 2010.
  • BBSRC/DFID. (co-appl). Improving the quality of FMD vaccines by understanding the correlation of vaccine-induced protection with humoral and cellular immune responses.  (with Dr S. Parida (PI) IAH-Pirbright). £114,450. 4 years from March 2010.
  • Wellcome Trust (co-appl). (African Institutes Capacity Building Initiative).  AfriqueOne: African Research Consortium for Ecosystem and Population Health: "Expanding Frontiers in Health”, led by Professor Bassirou Bonfoh. £4,997,000, 2009-2014.