Christina Pagel, Senior Research Fellow, Clinical Operational Research Unit, University College London

Christina Pagel’s journey to mathematics in health care has been somewhat roundabout. She left Oxford University with a first in Maths in 1996 and then dabbled in quantum physics and classical history before deciding she wanted to be an astronaut. Christina then spent 6 years doing space physics which included a PhD at Imperial College and a post-doctoral position at Boston University in America. In 2005 she changed field completely and started working in the area of applying mathematics to health care and its delivery, which she has found to be immensely interesting and fulfilling. Christina is currently a senior research fellow at the Clinical Operational Research Unit at UCL. She is working on a diverse set of projects, from covering triage to intensive care during a pandemic, from organisation of primary care mental health services to policies for paediatric heart transplant lists through to strategies for saving newborn lives in the poorest
regions of India.