John is a data scientist and epidemiologist at the Bradford Centre for Health Data Science. He currently co-leads on evaluating the effectiveness of community-based interventions at improving young people’s mental health. He also leads on the centre’s digital and social media theme, leveraging the power of trials and digital footprint data to understand the role these technologies play in the wellbeing of teens. His previous work on Born in Bradford: Age of Wonder adopted novel technologies to further understanding of adolescent development and address health inequalities, developing simple games for tablets, web-browsers, and virtual reality headsets, to measure neural processes in education settings. He also worked with teachers and senior leadership teams to deliver data dashboards giving oversight of how their pupils’ physical and mental health needs are being met in local and national contexts, sign-posting support where further needs are identified.

John is passionate about engaging young people and schools with science. Rather than using them as participant pools, he aims to bring students closer to the scientific method, providing interactive lessons, workshops, and datasets. Through this approach, he hopes to educate and inspire future generations of scientists from all backgrounds.