Singapore SLING is a dynamic group of researchers who are passionate about public health.
Clarence Tam is an epidemiologist with a focus on the burden, transmission and control of infectious diseases. He has faculty appointments at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health (Singapore) and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (UK), where he obtained his PhD. He has conducted numerous studies into the burden and epidemiology of enteric and foodborne diseases in the UK and Europe, as well as dengue in Sri Lanka. His research group at NUS has research projects on the epidemiology and transmission of antibiotic resistant bacteria, respiratory infections and dengue, vaccine hesitancy and vaccination behaviour, antibiotic use in the human and animal sectors, and the role of the built environment on physical activity. The group currently conducts research in Singapore and the wider Asian region, including Cambodia and India, using a wide range of methodologies, including statistical and molecular epidemiology, social network analysis, qualitative methods, and participatory research. He teaches courses on epidemiology and control of communicable diseases at NUS, and is also co-organiser of a joint LSHTM-NUS short course on Vaccinology for Clinical and Public Health Practice. He is Editor-in-Chief of Emerging Themes in Epidemiology, an online, Open Access epidemiology journal.
Vittoria is a Research Fellow at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health. Following a Diploma in Biology at the Albert-Ludwigs University of Freiburg, Germany, she completed a PhD in malaria epidemiology at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin. During her PhD, she assessed antibody responses in individuals naturally exposed to the malaria parasite. She later completed a Master of Public Health at the Hong Kong University, with a thesis on the control of avian influenza viruses in live poultry markets. Her current research interests include public vaccine perceptions, community-based infectious disease surveillance, and outbreak investigation. She is currently working on a qualitative study assessing adolescent girls’ perspectives on human papilloma vaccination in Cambodia.
Zaw Myo Tun is a research associate and PhD candidate at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health. His PhD research uses a novel approach to study the role of patient movements on the risk of MRSA transmission in a Singapore tertiary hospital using electronic medical records. Zaw also serves as Associate Editor at Emerging Themes in Epidemiology journal. His research interests include infections, antibiotic resistance, epidemiology, and evidence-based practice. He is also active in teaching Public Health and Epidemiology.
Marina Binti Zahari is a research associate at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health and joined the SLING team in early 2015. She worked as a laboratory technician on human viruses before obtaining a Master of Science degree in Health Sciences/Epidemiology from Erasmus University, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. She was involved in research on infectious diseases at both a municipal health service and a consultancy company. Her main interest is the epidemiological assessment of pathogens relevant for Public Health.
Nivedita Shankar is a research associate at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health. She completed her Masters of Science in Public Health at Tulane University and her concentration was Tropical Medicine and Parasitology. Her research interests include : Epidemiology, Infectious Disease Outbreaks, Neglected Tropical Diseases and Surveillance.
Phyumar Soe is a research associate at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health. She is a public health doctor with over seven years of experience in infectious disease epidemiology. After completing the internship at the World Health Organization, South-East Asia Regional Office (WHO-SEARO), she worked at the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) and contributed to the monitoring and evaluation of annual HIV programme response and surveillance system in Myanmar. She provided technical support in the design, implementation, and analysis of Myanmar national integrated biological and behavioural surveys, and population size estimation among high-risk populations. She is currently investigating the global antibiotic use among under-five children with symptoms using nationally representative datasets. Her areas of interests are antimicrobial resistance, disease surveillance, vaccines, and infectious disease epidemiology.
Ekta Jain is a PhD Student at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health. Her work encompasses physical activity, sedentary behaviourand effects on non-communicable diseases. Her thesis has a special focus on urbanicity, comparing effects of urbanicity on the earlier stated in peri-urban India with urbanised Singapore. Ekta has a masters in Bioinformatics from the university of Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK. Having dabbled in bioinformatics research, project management, training, research and consulting for nine years, Ekta transitioned to epidemiology research. Her interests include impacts of individual’s environment on their health, predictive modeling, database management systems and public policy.
