Profile
Trystan Leng
My CV
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Education:
School: Trinity Academy in Edinburgh (2005-2011), Undergraduate: University of Glasgow (2011-2015), Postgraduate: University of Warwick (2016 -)
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Qualifications:
Advanced Higher: Maths, Chemistry, Physics, Higher: English, History, an undergraduate degree in maths and philosophy, and a postgraduate degree in mathematics of systems
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Work History:
I’ve worked as a research assistant, and volunteered as a teaching assistant
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Current Job:
PhD student
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About Me:
I’m an easy going guy from Scotland, who loves to travel.
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I am from Scotland, but now live and work in England. I grew up and went to school in Edinburgh. After school I moved to Glasgow to study maths and philosophy at university. After my degree I knew I wanted to continue doing maths, but I also wanted to do something I knew would help people. So I moved to Warwick University to study and research infectious diseases, which is where I am now.
I spend most of my free time watching Netflix, seeing friends, playing games, and eating food. I’m a Manchester United fan, but don’t hold that against me. I love to travel – my favourite places I’ve visited are Cambodia and Vietnam. I don’t take life too seriously.
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I work at the University of Warwick, and I use maths to study how sexually transmitted infections, known in short as STIs, spread. In particular, I’m interested in how people’s behaviour affects the spread of STIs.
STIs are spread from person to person by sexual contact. How quickly STIs spread depends on peoples’ sexual behaviour, such as how many new partners a person has in a year. My research tries to figure out what makes STIs spread quickly, and how people’s behaviour affects how they should be controlled.
I try and answer these questions by making ‘mathematical models’. These are simplified versions of disease spread in the real world, which can be ‘simulated’ on a computer. Running simulations with different features, like different partnership rates, allows us to see what effect they have on disease spread.
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My Typical Day:
I spend a typical day using simulations to answer questions about the spread of STIs.
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10am – Arrive at my office.
10-11am – Read new research papers to make sure I’m up to date with what other researchers are doing in my area.
11-12pm – Meet my supervisor, or another researcher, to discuss any results or research problems I have, and to get new ideas about what sort of questions we should try and answer next.
12pm-1pm – Eat lunch. Take a walk. Unwind.
1pm-2pm – Write and improve computer code that simulates the spread of diseases.
2pm-3pm – Use the computer simulations to answer questions about disease spread. For example, I might be interested in how the rate of break-ups affects the spread of sexually transmitted infections.
3pm-4pm – Write up the results I find, and make graphs to support my findings.
4pm- Go home. Relax.
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What I'd do with the prize money:
Start an outreach programme, visiting schools to tell people about how maths and STIs are linked.
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
Relaxed. Happy. Optimistic.
What did you want to be after you left school?
I had absolutely no idea - I just wanted to have fun.
Were you ever in trouble at school?
Wasn't everyone?
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Abba are the best band of all time, that's not up for debate.
What's your favourite food?
Pasta.
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
1. To be a morning person 2. To be more organised 3. To be a better singer
Tell us a joke.
I wanted to be a professional scarecrow, but I wasn't outstanding in my field.
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