CV

Education

• 10/2023 - present: PhD (Probationary) in Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge
  • Research on stewarding blood donor health with a focus on the English blood service
  • Supervised by Dr Lois Kim and advised by Dr Stephen Kaptoge
  • Based within the Blood and Transplant Research Unit and the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit
• 10/2022 - 09/2023: MSc in Global Health Science and Epidemiology, University of Oxford (pass with merit, 65%+)
  • Compulsory modules: Principles of Statistics, Principles of Epidemiology, Introduction to International Research Ethics, Introduction to Global Health Science
  • Optional modules: Principles and Applications of Data Science, Non-Communicable Diseases, Nutritional Epidemiology, Health Economics, Clinical Trials and Meta-Analyses (audited), Genetic Epidemiology (audited)
  • Dissertation (65+): “Fresh fruit consumption and the risks of >350 diseases in China: a prospective cohort study” supervised by Dr Pang Yao, Assoc Prof Huaidong Du, and Assoc Prof Derrick Bennett
  • Based within the Nuffield Department of Population Health and the Big Data Institute
  • Here’s an illustrated summary of our cohort’s MSc year!
• 09/2019 - 06/2022: BSc in Population Health Sciences (Data Science specialism), University College London (first class honours, 75%+)
  • 1st year modules: Epidemiological Transition, Social Determinants of Health, Measuring Population Health, Social Determinants of Health, Research Methods in Population Health, Principles of Social Science Research, Introduction to Quantitative Research Methods (all pass/fail assessed due to COVID-19 pandemic)
  • 2nd year modules: Frontiers of Knowledge in Population Health (80+), The Life Course (75+), Acute and Chronic Infectious Diseases (70+), Data Analysis (65+), Health and Behaviour (80+), Qualitative Research Methods (80+), Health Demography (80+)
  • 3rd year modules: Causal Analysis in Data Science (70+), Measurements in Data Science (65+), Health, Poverty and Development (65+), Digital Health (70+), Population Ageing (90+), Health Psychology (70+)
  • Dissertation (70+): “Feeling less useful but under less strain: furlough and psychological distress in the UK Household Longitudinal Study’s COVID-19 waves” supervised by Dr Liam Wright
  • Based within the Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care

Academic awards and honours

• 06/2023: NIHR PhD Studentship. Awarded full scholarship from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) for a 3-year PhD in blood donor health at the University of Cambridge.
• 07/2022: Dean’s List, 2021-22. Awarded for outstanding academic performance by 2022 graduates, equivalent to the top 5% of student achievement within UCL’s Faculty of Population Health Sciences.
• 09/2021: Undergraduate Scholarship for Excellence, Year 2. Awarded to the most academically outstanding student in 2020-21 in my BSc cohort. £3 000.
• 09/2021: Year 2 Prize for Overall Academic Achievement. Awarded to the highest-scoring student across all modules in my BSc cohort.
• 07/2019: AP Scholar with Distinction. Awarded to Advanced Placement (American A-level equivalent) candidates with excellent performance across five or more exams.
• 06/2019: Highest Honours. Awarded to students in the top 10% of my high school’s 2019 graduating class.

Research experience

• 05/2024 - present: Research Assistant @ the University of Florida’s Center for Arts in Medicine (part-time)
  • Team-working to run literature searches, screen peer-reviewed and grey literature, extract data, and draft manuscript for scoping review on receptive engagement with visual art and wellbeing in healthcare settings
  • Working with the Jameel Arts and Health Lab, a collaboration between NYU’s Steinhardt School, the WHO, Community Jameel, and Culturunners
• 09/2023 - present: Researcher @ the Universty of Brighton’s Donor Research Team (part-time)
  • Team-working to develop and run literature searches, screen articles, extract data, perform qualitative syntheses, and draft manuscript for systematic review on barriers and facilitators to acute care access in UK adults with sickle cell disease
• 03/2023 - 08/2023: Research Student @ Clinical Trials Service Unit, University of Oxford
  • Designed pheWAS study, conducted a literature review, ran analyses in R, and presented findings as part of MSc placement
  • Drafted Lancet-style journal article for assessment
• 04/2021 - 07/2021: Research Assistant @ Aceso Global Health Consultants (part-time)
  • Edited research protocols, conducted literature reviews, and developed intervention materials for a RSPH-award-winning child nutrition RCT
  • Took meeting minutes and assisted research team with administrative tasks
  • The NEON trial protocol can be found here!
• 10/2020 - 03/2021: Research Team Lead @ Bentham Brooks Institute (part-time)
  • Led six-person team to conceptualise and publish paper linking personal protective equipment policies and healthcare worker mortality during COVID-19 in four high-income countries (cited in presentations to UK policymakers)
  • Presented paper to interdisciplinary academic and student audience in 2021 research conference

Skills and proficiencies

• Study design (incl. cross-sectional, case-control, cohort, and trial designs)
  • Research question formulation
  • Protocol and proposal drafting
  • Sample size and power calculations
  • Critical appraisal
  • Project management
• Evidence synthesis
  • Search term formulation
  • Record deduplication and screening
  • Consensus gathering
  • Data extraction
  • Narrative synthesis
  • Thematic synthesis
  • Meta-analysis (incl. dose-response methods)
  • Tools: EndNote, R, Rayyan.ai, Covidence
• Quantitative research methods
  • Regression (incl. linear, logistic, mixed, Poisson, Cox)
  • Missing data (incl. description, visualisation, imputation)
  • Causal inference (incl. instrumental variables, regression discontinuity, synthetic controls)
  • Classification (incl. supervised and unsupervised machine learning)
  • Spatial analysis (incl. clustering, autocorrelation)
  • Software: R (incl. loops, custom function-building, and tidyverse), Stata
• Qualitative research methods
  • Qualitative and mixed-methods study designs
  • Focus group planning, topic guide drafting
  • Thematic and content analysis
• Data visualisation
  • Conventional charts (incl. line, bar, pie, scatter)
  • Epidemiology-specific charts (incl. Manhattan plots, forest plots, funnel plots, shape plots)
  • Interactive visualisations (incl. maps, multimedia data stories)
  • Tools: Canva, Autodesk Sketchbook, Flourish, Tableau, Datawrapper, Microsoft Excel, plain old pen and paper!
  • Software: R (ggplot2 and various add-ons)
• Graphic and website design
  • Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn assets
  • Tools: Canva, WordPress
  • Software: HTML, CSS
• Project management
  • Administration, goal-setting, and team-working
  • Tools: Microsoft Office Suite, Google Suite, Notion, Slack, Trello, Miro, Calendly
• Languages
  • English (native speaker)
  • Mandarin (native speaker)
  • French (CEFR B1/2)
  • Egyptian colloquial Arabic (enough to get by in Cairo)

Other work experience

• 05/2020 - 12/2022: Communications Lead @ MedSupplyDrive UK (voluntary)
  • Led team of interdisciplinary volunteers to create and disseminate publicity materials to further the charity’s mission of securing protective equipment for health and care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic
  • Created content for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube and engaged with relevant accounts and supporters online
  • Contributed to donation of 100K+ items of protective equipment (including masks, gloves, wipes, and body suits)
  • Contributed illustrations of UK healthcare workers lost to COVID-19 to a social history account of the pandemic from clinician perspectives
  • Read more about MedSupplyDrive UK’s work via this publication by our American colleagues and inspirations: Sayyed A, Baker ML, Peesay T, Rooney A, Syed Z. An Auxiliary Medical Education: The Evolution of a Medical Student-Founded Organization in Response to the COVID-19 Era Personal Protective Equipment Shortage. Acad Med. 2021 Dec 1;96(12):1663-1670. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000004185.
• 07/2022: Journalism Intern @ Carbon Brief
  • Drafted and edited coverage of a Nature paper on migration and climate change (including interviewing its lead author, Harvard Kennedy School Environmental Fellow Dr Hélène Benveniste)
  • Contributed to a media reaction piece about the summer 2022 UK heatwave on a tight deadline (and while melting)
  • Drafted copy for a biweekly newsletter with worldwide reach
  • Supported senior team members in designing and coding data visualisations (such as one in this article) of climate data using Highcharts, a Javascript library
  • Designed social media and website assets for published stories
• 07/2021 - 11/2021; 10/2021 - 06/2022: Services, Support, and Content Intern @ Flourish (part of the Canva family)
  • Designed data visualisations for clients such as Imperial College London, McKinsey, EY, YouGov, and the BBC
  • Coded novel visualisation tools and “hacks” using HTML and CSS
  • Responded to business and private customer queries in timely and professional manner
  • Produced data visualisation and storytelling content for company website and socials, including:
    • A piece about common data visualisation mistakes
    • A customer story for the award-winning editorial studio Kontinentalist
    • A visualisation series about my Maasai Mara safari adventures
    • Charts showing the distribution, causes, and impact of the world’s air pollution
    • An introduction to visualising survey data inspired by our work with Imperial and YouGov teams
  • Pushed for the addition of alt text to public-facing content, which remains to this day
• 08/2021 - 09/2021: Research Assistant @ The Equality Trust
  • Researched, analysed, and visualised data on the nature of economic inequality in the UK and other high-income countries with a focus on how protected characteristics
  • Reviewed literature around economics, income and wealth inequality, and disability theory

Publications

• Wu Y et al. Keeping Our Frontline Safe: Linking personal protective equipment policies and healthcare worker mortality in the United Kingdom, United States, Germany, and New Zealand. Bentham Brooks Institute Research Journal, 2021, 1(1):125–189. Available here.

Conference abstracts

• Wu Y and Kim LG. Donation frequency and vasovagal reactions in English whole blood donors: Associations and mechanisms. Transfusion Medicine. 2024;34(S1):12-69. doi: 10.1111/tme.13084.

You can also find my publications on my Google Scholar profile.

Talks

• 11/2024: Gifting safely: evaluating the health impacts of voluntary blood donation. Presented at a “work-in-progress” seminar at the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit. Slides available upon request.
• 11/2024: Donation history, pain and anxiety, and fainting in 60K English blood donors. Presented at a McMenemy Seminar at Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge. Slides available upon request.
• 06/2024: Gifting safely: evaluating the health impacts of voluntary blood donation. Presented alongside fellow PhD students in public health and primary care at a departmental seminar. Slides available upon request.
• 05/2024: Could psychologic constructs explain why inexperienced blood donors are more likely to faint? Presented to multidisciplinary early career researchers affiliated with Cambridge Public Health; highly commended by attendees and organisers. Slides here.
• 03/2024: Could donating blood make you healthier? One of 10 finalists selected from 100+ entrants to share three minutes of science at the Famelab East of England final with public audiences. Related blog post here.
• 02/2024: One more light: making better R functions. Presented to UCL’s R User Group. Slides here. Code here.
• 06/2021: Can you hear the sirens? Presenting ambulance response patterns during a coronavirus surge using multimedia. Presented during UCL’s R Project Showcase. Abstract here. Slides here. Based on this blog post.
• 03/2021: Keeping our frontline safe: Linking personal protective equipment policies and healthcare worker mortality in the United Kingdom, United States, Germany, and New Zealand. Research team presentation at the Bentham Brooks Institute’s Research Conference awarded “Best Presentation” out of five teams. Recording here.

Poster presentations

• Wu Y on behalf of MedSupplyDrive UK. Harnessing volunteer power to protect frontline workers during a pandemic: one charity’s story. Presented at West Hub Research Café on Pandemic Preparedness and One Health – June 2024. Poster here.
• Wu Y, Qi H, Kim LG. Risk factors for donation-related vasovagal reactions: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Presented at Celebration of Research event at the Victor Philip Dahdaleh Heart and Lung Research Institute – April 2024. Poster here.
• Wu Y et al. Donation history and vasovagal reactions in English whole blood donors: associations and mechanisms. Presented at the British Blood Transfusion Society’s 2024 conference – September 2024. Poster here.

Service

• Peer reviewer for Vox Sanguinis (2024-)

Volunteering and leadership

You can learn more about my volunteering and leadership experience on my LinkedIn profile.