MrBilly Thurston

Billy is a Research Assistant within the Vaccine Epidemiology Research Group in the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology. The team is developing protocols for environmental surveillance, which can provide an effective and low-cost tool for monitoring the levels and spread of diseases such as typhoid and polio in many lower-middle income countries.

He is using skills in GIS and data analysis to develop and automate protocols for the effective selection of sampling sites for wastewater monitoring. He recently graduated with distinction from an MSc in Advanced GIS and Remote Sensing, and has past experience working with drinking water and wastewater quality assessment.

He originally studied civil engineering and worked in water engineering roles for large UK consultancies and a small charity in Mexico. After working for the world’s largest network of water professionals during the covid pandemic, he retrained as a secondary physics teacher and worked in two London secondary schools.

As a critical and creative thinker, he is keen to apply skills in analysis and communication to combat environmental challenges such as disease outbreaks, habitat depletion and climate change.

Outside of work, he enjoys exploring the great outdoors (ideally with his dogs), cooking, playing football, and visiting art galleries.