I am a Cancer Epidemiologist and Public Health Researcher in the Academic Primary Care Research Group at the University of Aberdeen. I am also a Visiting Professor at Hokkaido University, Japan, where I completed my PhD in Public Health and Epidemiology and spent much of my professional career. I hold an MA (Hons) in Modern Languages from the University of St Andrews.

My research focuses on understanding and improving cervical cancer prevention strategies. I am particularly interested in improving equity in access, delivery, and outcomes in support of the WHO’s goal to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem. I am Chief Investigator (CI) on a £1.3 million Cancer Research UK grant (AYEScreen), which examines whether offering HPV self-sampling to under-screened women in the most disadvantaged and rural or remote populations in Scotland can improve accessibility, equity, and participation in the Scottish Cervical Screening Programme.

I am CI on a Royal Society of Edinburgh Grant to develop and validate a Japanese version of the WHO Behavioural and Social Drivers (BeSD) of HPV Vaccination framework. During my time in Japan, I held more than ten grants funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).

I serve on multiple national and international expert and steering groups related to cervical cancer control. These include the International HPV Prevention and Control Board; the WHO Reference Group on the BeSD of HPV Vaccination; the Scottish Government’s Cervical Cancer Elimination Expert Group and the Scottish HPV Self-Sampling Implementation Group

I have over 20 years’ experience teaching in higher education and am currently Programme Lead for the on-campus Master of Public Health (January intake).

I am fluent in German and Japanese, and in my spare time I volunteer with the Sapporo English Medical Interpreters Group, translating materials to support non-Japanese residents' access to cervical screening and childhood immunisation programmes.

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