Academic staff
Leadership team
Krasimira Tsaneva-Atanasova - Principal Investigator

Krasimira Tsaneva-Atanasova is Professor of Mathematics for Healthcare in the Living Systems Institute and the Department of Mathematics at the University of Exeter (UoE), UK.
She received her MSc (Mathematics) from the University of Plovdiv, Bulgaria and PhD (Applied Mathematica) from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She joined the Department of Engineering Mathematics at the University of Bristol in October 2007 as a lecturer and was promoted to a Reader in Applied Mathematics in 2012.
Krasimira moved to the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter in July 2013. Her research and professional activities aim to inform novel applications of mathematics to enable the development of quantitative methods for healthcare and healthcare technologies. In her research, she develops and analyses mathematical models for applications to personalised prediction and clinical decision support in prevention, diagnosis or treatment of health-related conditions. She also serves as Associate Dean for International and Development in the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences at UoE (2018-2021).
Robert Beardmore

In his research Professor Robert Beardmore is interested in mathematical modelling of evolutionary datasets, particularly relating to antibiotic resistance. He also undertakes mathematical analysis of differential-algebraic equations, and focuses on applications of mathematical analysis/computation to evolutionary biology and physics.
Prof. Beardmore's research projects include applying fluids DFT to understand the action and dose-dependence of antimicrobial peptides (with Laurie Frink), understanding complete viral (phage) resistance in E.coli (with Justin Meyer), and using optimisation theory as a basis to model optimal antibiotic use (with Hinrich Schulenberg).
Peter Challenor

Professor Peter Challenor has broad interests; mainly about uncertainty in the natural world. These range from the statistical analysis of complex numerical models (such as those used to simulate climate) to the interpolation of noisy data and the estimation of the amount of renewable energy in the ocean.
Peter is the principal investigator on the NERC RAPID-WATCH project RAPIT looking at the risk of the shut down or significant slowing of the Atlantic Meridional Current. This project relies on thousands of climate simulations carried out by members of the public via climate prediction.net.
Clinical and Biomedical Co-Investigators
Waljit Dhillo

Professor Waljit Dhillo is a Professor in Endocrinology & Metabolism, Consultant Endocrinologist and an NIHR Research Professor. He is Head of the Section Endocrinology and Investigative Medicine & Head of Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism at Imperial College London. He is also Director of Research for the Division of Medicine & Integrated Care at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.
He completed his medical training at St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical School, University of London in 1994. During this time he also completed an Intercalated BSc in Biochemistry (awarded First Class Honours) funded by the Medical Research Council. He then completed his general medical training in London Hospitals. In 1997 he joined the North West Thames Rotation in Diabetes and Endocrinology as a Specialist Registrar. During this time he completed a PhD on the area of novel neuropeptides regulating appetite as a Wellcome Trust Clinical Training Fellow at Imperial College with Professor Sir Steve Bloom. In 2004 he was awarded a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinician Scientist Fellowship and appointed Clinical Senior Lecturer & Consultant in Diabetes & Endocrinology at Imperial College London. Following this he was awarded an NIHR Career Development Fellowship and promoted to Reader in 2009. In 2011 he was promoted to Professor in Endocrinology & Metabolism. In 2015 Professor Dhillo was awarded a prestigious NIHR Research Professorship.
Professor Dhillo’s research investigates novel aspects of endocrine control of obesity and reproductive function.
Neil Gow

Professor Neil Gow is Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Impact and Professor of Microbiology at the University of Exeter. Professor Gow was appointed in September 2018.
He is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh where he obtained his Bachelors degree in Microbiology. Professor Gow went on to receive his PhD in 1982 from the University of Aberdeen, followed by a period of postdoctoral research at the National Jewish Hospital for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine and University of Colorado, Denver, USA. He was appointed as a lecturer to the University of Aberdeen and received a personal Chair in 1995. At the University of Aberdeen Professor Gow held various senior positions including Head of Microbiology Research Programme, 2002-2011, Director of Research and Commercialisation, College of Life Sciences and Medicine, 2011-2015, Director of the Wellcome Trust Strategic Award in Medical Mycology and Fungal Immunology and Co-Director, MRC Centre for Medical Mycology, 2017-2018. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Academy of Medical Sciences, Royal Society of Edinburgh and American Academy of Microbiology and has acted as President of three major international societies of mycology and microbiology.
As Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Impact, Professor Gow oversees a total research portfolio of £299 million and leads the research vision and strategy for the University.
His overarching responsibilities include our preparation and submission for the Research Excellence Framework in 2021; interdisciplinary institutes, including the Environment and Sustainability Institute and the Living System Institute, and the development of our Global Systems Institute and Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Institute; strategic leadership of our Doctoral College, the University Ethics Committee and the Research and Impact Strategy Management Group; and ensuring our research is utilised and impacts positively on the wider world.
Professor Gow represents the University externally via a number of research-related groups including the EU Advisory Group for the Russell Group of Universities and GW4, our regional alliance of the Universities of Bristol, Bath, Cardiff and Exeter.
Andrew Hattersley
Prof Andrew Hattersley FRS is a clinical scientist, who is distinguished for his contributions to the understanding of the genetics of diabetes and the application of that knowledge to clinical practice. He became Gillings Chair in Precision Medicine in 2015 and leads the Precision medicine initiative in Exeter working with both scientific and clinical colleagues.
He and Prof Sian Ellard set up and currently head the premier international research team working on monogenic diabetes and has played a major role in the UK research effort into the genetics of type 2 diabetes. He continues to work as a consultant physician in diabetes while at the same time leading a large research team. His research combines state-of-the-art molecular genetics with physiological and clinical investigations in patients. He uses the accidents of nature that cause monogenic diabetes to understand the critical role of the gene product in man, in a similar fashion to many laboratory scientists who study knockout animals. A key theme of his approach is that his scientific discoveries are rapidly and effectively translated into improvements in clinical care.
Theoretical Co-Investigators
Peter Ashwin

Professor of Mathematics Peter Ashwin specialises in dynamical systems theory and computational modelling. At The University of Exeter since 2000, Peter previously held teaching and research positions at Surrey, Warwick, Nice (France) and Marburg (Germany).
His main interests are in nonlinear dynamical systems and applications: bifurcation theory and dynamical systems, especially synchronization problems, symmetric chaotic dynamics and spatially extended systems and nonautonomous systems. Applications of dynamical systems that he has been studying include climate (bifurcations, tipping points), fluids (bifurcations and mixing), laser systems (synchronization), neural systems (perceptual rivalry, intermittent models), materials and electronic systems (digital signal processing), biophysical modelling (cell biology).
Particular themes running through Prof. Ashwin's work include symmetries and intermittent behaviour, and the structure of attractors, in particular, riddled basins of attraction and associated phenomena. He also has interests in random dynamics/stochastically forced systems and in low dimensional dynamics/ergodic theory.
Current research projects include the mathematical modelling of paleoclimate transitions, molecular networks, phase change materials in data storage media, using heteroclinic networks to model functional dynamics in neural and other biomedical systems and tipping points in nonautonomous systems with applications in climate and finance.
Ivana Gudelj

Professor of Evolutionary Systems Biology at Exeter, Ivana studies competition, metabolic cooperation and coevolution among microorganisms and how these interactions affect the evolution of microbial biodiversity, virulence and antifungal resistance. She exploits developments in synthetic and quantitative biology to solve fundamental problems in evolutionary and community microbiology.
Following the award of a PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Bath, she subsequently held a NERC Environmental Mathematics and Statistics Fellowship at Silwood Park, Imperial College London followed by a NERC Advanced Fellowship. In 2011, she moved from the Mathematics Department at Imperial to the University of Exeter to set up an interdisciplinary research group where mathematicians, physicists, bioinformaticians, molecular biologists and experimental evolutionary ecologists would work together and share ideas. Her work is currently funded by an ERC Consolidator Grant, an ERC Proof of Concept award and the Leverhulme Trust.
Read more information about Prof Gudelj’s interdisciplinary work here.
Kyle Wedgwood

Dr Kyle Wedgwood is an MRC-funded research fellow in the Quantitative Biomedical Modelling @ Exeter group, housed with the Living Systems Institute. Working primarily within the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, Kyle works closely with the University of Exeter Medical School.
In his research, Dr Wedgwood applies techniques from mathematical modelling (dynamical systems theory, bifurcation analysis) to understand how networks of cells come together to form biological networks that can perform functional tasks. He is particularly interested in spatio-temporal patterns of neural activity in the brain and their role in memory and spatial navigation, and the synchronisation of electrical activity amongst the insulin-secreting beta cells in the pancreas.