Helen Byrne
Short Biography
After graduating from Cambridge University, I obtained a Masters degree in Mathematical Modelling and Numerical Analysis and then a DPhil in applied mathematics from Oxford University. Working as an MRC-funded postdoctoral researcher between Oxford and Hammersmith Hospital’s Cyclotron Unit enabled me to transition into mathematical biology while gaining valuable experience of multidisciplinary research. I was awarded an EPSRC postdoctoral fellowship, but accepted a longer post to work on the same project, with Professor Mark Chaplain at the University of Bath, before taking up a lectureship in applied mathematics at UMIST (in Manchester). I moved to the University of Nottingham in 1998, won promotion to reader (2002) and professor (2003), and was awarded an EPSRC advanced fellowship to study interactions between growth and deformation in biological tissues (2000-2006). At the same time, I played an active role in establishing and developing Nottingham’s Centre for Mathematical Medicine and Biology (Director, 1999-2011) while also co-organising the first series of Mathematics in Medicine Study Groups. In 2011, I returned to Oxford where I am a Professor of Mathematical Biology based in the Mathematical Institute..
My research continues to focus on the development and analysis of continuum and multiscale/hybrid models of biomedical systems, with particular interests in the growth and treatment of solid tumours, angiogenesis, stem cells and tissue engineering. I publish in a range of mathematical and biomedical journals. I receive regular invitations to give plenary lectures and am a member of several advisory boards (e.g., Isaac Newton Institute, Cambridge and the Centra de Recerca Matematica, Barcelona).