Current research students

Alburez Gutiérrez, Diego
Research topic: Beyond excess mortality: The social and demographic life of a rural community after a war of massacres.
Supervisors: Dr Arjan Gjonca, Dr Tiziana Leone
Research interests: 
Conflict, civil war, genocide, anthropological demography, demographic change, indirect estimation techniques, genealogy, anthropological linguistics, public policy and policy evaluation.
My research brings together methods from historical demography and social anthropology to understand the changes that take place in contexts of genocidal violence and the way these are interpreted in the long term by those that experience them.
Personal information:
Born in Guatemala, holds a BA in Anthropology from the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala and an MSc in Social Research Methods from the London School of Economics. Currently lives in London. Has extensive experience working in rural areas and with indigenous communities in Guatemala. Previous work as an independent consultant include qualitative evaluations of conditional cash transfer programmes with the Population Council and the IDB, as well as managing the translation of different pieces of software and applications to Mayan languages. Currently works as a Research Assistant at the Sociology and Methodology Departments of the LSE.
More information: LSE Population
Contact details:  d.alburez-gutierrez@lse.ac.uk

Alexander (Herden), Eileen
Research topic:  Informal financial support to people on low incomes in Britain.
Supervisors: Professor Anne Power, Dr Kitty Stewart 
Research interests: Welfare reform, social exclusion, informal support networks, social housing, mixed method research 
Personal information: Eileen is German American and holds a degree from the University of Wisconsin and an MSc in Social Policy and Planning from the London School of Economics. Since completing her MSc in 2011 Eileen has worked as a researcher at the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) with Professor Anne Power at LSE Housing and Communities where she has primarily conducted qualitative research with social housing tenants on topics relating to welfare reform and housing policy.
More information: CASE
Contact details: e.herden@lse.ac.uk

Angelis, Aris
Research topic:  Biomedical innovation: Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis for Value Assessment of New Medical Technologies investments
Supervisors: Dr Panos Kanavos, Professor Alistair McGuire
Research interests: 
Pharmaceutical economics and policy, value based pricing, biomedical R&D process and incentives for innovation, access to medicines, Health Technology Assessment, economic evaluation, decision analysis, personalised medicine, life sciences investments, sustainability of health care systems.
Personal information: 
Born and raised in Athens, Greece, Aris is a PhD fellow at the department of Social Policy and a Research Associate at the Medical Technology Research Group, LSE Health. He holds an MSc in International Health Policy Health Economics from LSE and an MSc in Biopharmacy from King's College London. Aris completed his undergraduate studies in Biochemistry at Imperial College London with a special interest in pharmacology and drug action. Previous work includes intern roles with Novartis, working in the market access Department, and in the regulatory affairs evaluation division of the Greek National Organization for Medicines in Athens.
More information: Medical Technology Research Group, LSE Experts, LSE Health, Twitter, LinkedIn
Contact details: a.n.angelis@lse.ac.uk

Bailey, Elizabeth
Research topic: The Development of the City Technology College Programme – A study of English secondary education in the 1980s.
Supervisors: Professor Anne West, Dr Sonia Exley
Research interests:
Education Policy; Welfare State and Policy History: Political Science Theory
Personal information:
Liz is a US and Canadian citizen who has been working and studying in the UK for the last four years. She completed her undergraduate education in History and Government at Cornell University and holds an MSc in Social Policy and Planning from the LSE.
More information: ERG
Contact details: e.c.bailey@lse.ac.uk

Bancalari Valderrama, Antonella
Research topic: Impact of WASH interventions in low-income settings
Supervisors: Dr Berkay Ozcan, Dr Joan Costa-i-Font
Research interests:
Public Policy, Development Economics, Quantitative Impact Evaluations, WASH, Nutrition, Child Health, Population.
The aim of my research is to quantitatively estimate the impact of WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) interventions on rural areas and population transition settings such as peri-urban areas and urban slums.
Personal information:
Born in Peru, holds a Bsc in Economics from Universidad del Pacífico in Lima-Peru and a Master in Public Administration - International Development from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Has experience in policy evaluations, specifically in WASH, health and nutrition interventions in Peru, Bolivia, El Salvador and Nigeria. Previous work include extensive fieldwork in Peru as a public policy analyst and impact evaluations with the Inter-American Development Bank and Oxford Policy Management. 
More information: LSE Population
Contact details: a.bancalari@lse.ac.uk 

Barnett, Ed
Research topic: Quality primary education in Malawi: what role for decentralisation?
Supervisors: Professor Anne West, Professor Stephen Jenkins
Research interests: 
School financing, decentralisation, governance and quality in sub-Saharan Africa and the UK.
Personal information: 
Ed is from London and holds two MSc degrees from the LSE, in Social Policy and Development (2006) and in Social Policy (Research) (2011). Ed has over 12 years of experience of working in education internationally; this includes teaching in a government secondary school in Cameroon, as Programme Director for an NGO in Malawi and as a World Bank education consultant. Ed has also worked in the UK, supporting the teaching of citizenship and facilitating school partnerships with schools in sub-Saharan Africa. Ed currently works as an education adviser with the UK Department for International Development and studies for his PhD on a part-time basis.
More information: ERG
Contact details: e.a.barnett@lse.ac.uk

Batyra, Ewa
Research topic:  Fertility and contraceptive use in Latin America.
Supervisors: Dr Tiziana Leone, Professor Mikko Myrskyla
Research interests:
Demographic analysis, quantitative research methods, fertility trends, sexual and reproductive health, family planning policies and programmes, public health
More information: LSE Population, Personal webpage
Contact details: e.batyra@lse.ac.uk

Bevan, Miranda
Research topic: An examination of the police custody process from the perspective of juvenile detainees.
Supervisors: Professor Tim Newburn, Dr Coretta Phillips
Research interests:
Miranda’s research focuses on the experience of children and young people when detained as suspects in police custody in England and Wales. Her PhD project takes a qualitative approach, seeking to develop an understanding of the custody process from the perspective of young suspects. She is also interested more generally in vulnerability and effective participation within the criminal justice system.
Personal information:
Miranda was called to the Bar in 2000 and practised as a criminal barrister, prosecuting and defending criminal cases at all levels of seriousness. She left the Bar in 2012 to complete an MSc in Criminal Justice Policy at LSE. She subsequently spent two years at the Law Commission (a part of the Ministry of Justice), as the lawyer with responsibility for drafting the Law Commission’s Issues Paper and Report on Unfitness to Plead(Law Comm. No 364), before returning to LSE to begin her PhD. 
Contact details: m.j.bevan@lse.ac.uk

Bryson, Caroline
Research topic: Child maintenance: how far do family relations foreshadow non-resident parents' financial support of their children?
Supervisors: Professor Lucinda Platt, Dr Kitty Stewart
Research interests: 
Family separation; financial support of children post-separation; parenting in intact and separated families; outcomes for children in separated families; family policy and programme evaluation
Personal information: 
I am a part-time PhD student, using the UK Longitudinal Household Survey and Millennium Cohort Study to explore how far family dynamics prior to separation predict whether non-resident parents fulfill their financial obligations after separation. I am combining my PhD studies with work within my research partnership, Bryson Purdon Social Research. Within my research partnership, I work on grant-funded and government-funded studies, largely related to family life, particularly the experiences of and outcomes for separted families. I am a UK resident.
Contact details: c.l.bryson@lse.ac.uk

Cooper, Kerris
Research topic:  Economic hardship and parenting behaviours
Supervisors: Dr Kitty Stewart,  Professor Lucinda Platt
Research interests: 
Child poverty, social exclusion, stigma and state benefits.
Personal information: 
Kerris is a UK student with a degree in Sociology and Philosophy from Durham University and an Msc in Social Policy (Research) from the LSE. Since completing her masters degree in 2011 Kerris has been working as a researcher at the LSE. First as a qualitative analyst on the Reading the Riots research project with Professor Tim Newburn and the Guardian newspaper, and then as a researcher at CASE. At CASE Kerris has been working with Dr Kitty Stewart on a systematic review of the evidence about whether money has a causal impact on children’s outcomes. This research, which focused on the impact of money on adults’ outcomes, is now finished.
More information:  Reading the Riots,
Does Money Affect Children’s Outcomes? A Systematic Review, CASE
Contact details: k.m.cooper@lse.ac.uk

Courtin, Emilie
Research topic:  “Ageing in place” and depression in old age 
Supervisors: Professor Martin Knapp, Professor Emily Grundy
Research interests:
Mental health policy and practice; comparative health policy.
Personal information:
Emilie is a French citizen, she lives and works in London. She is doing her PhD part-time, while working as a Research Assistant at LSE Health and Social Care. Emilie received an MSc in Health Population and Society from LSE in 2007 and an undergraduate degree in political science from Sciences Po in Strasbourg, France.
More information:  LSE Experts, PSSRU
Contact details: e.courtin@lse.ac.uk 

Crespo,  Cristián
Research topic: Conditional Cash Transfers: Unconditionally Effective? Evidence from Regression Discontinuity Designs
Supervisors:  Professor Stephen Jenkins, Dr Grace Lordan
Research interests: Impact Evaluation, Social Policies, Higher Education
Personal information: 
Cristian is a Chilean citizen, currently a full-time PhD student at LSE. He has worked for the Chilean Government, both at the local and central levels. Additionally Cristián has experience as a private consultant for universities, governmental agencies and non-profit organizations. He holds an undergraduate degree in industrial engineering (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile) and a Master degree in Public Policy (University of California-Berkeley).
Contact details: cresporo@lse.ac.uk

De Poli, Chiara
Research topic: A realist evaluation of integrated care for dementia
Supervisors: Professor Martin Knapp, Professor Gerald Wistow
Research interests:
Policy evaluation, evidence based policy, implementation science, mixed methods, participatory research, dementia, integrated care.
Personal Information: 
I am Italian and have been living in London since 2011. My background is in public management and policy evaluation. I started my career in Italy where I worked in the area of monitoring and evaluation of EU co-funded programmes, both in academia and for a consulting firm. In 2011 I joined the Department of Management at LSE where I currently work as researcher mainly in the area of priority setting and resource allocation in health care. I am contributing to the dissemination of the STAR approach (Socio-Technical Allocation of Resources) which aims to help commissioners and service planners increase the value delivered by the health care system. In this area, I am currently involved in the NIHR CLAHRC North Thames with a multi-site project on the redesign of care pathways for diabetes, and I have supported the piloting of the STAR approach at the Global Fund.
I hold a BSc in Public Administration and International Institutions Management and an MSc in Economics and Management of Public Administration and International Institutionsboth from Bocconi University (Milan, Italy), and an MSc in Urban Management from Erasmus University Rotterdam (The Netherlands).
More information: Management, LSE Experts
Contact details:  c.de-poli@lse.ac.uk

Dean, Rikki
Research topic: Public Participation in UK Social Policy
Supervisors: Dr Tania Burchardt, Professor Hartley Dean
Research interests:
Deliberative democracy; theories of public management; history of the welfare state; modern social and political thought.
More information: CASE, About me, personal site
Contact details: r.j.dean@lse.ac.uk

Durazzi, Niccolo
Research topic: Business preferences and the politics of education andskills policy in post-industrial societies
Supervisors: Dr Timo Fleckenstein, Dr Sonia Exley
Research interests: 
Education policy, political economy of European welfare states, comparative political economy.
Contact details: n.durazzi@lse.ac.uk

Ferrario, Alessandra
Research topic:  Access to cancer medicines in Europe: An analysis of existing challenges and countries responses.
Supervisors: Dr Panos Kanavos, Professor Alistair McGuire
Research interests: 
Access to medicines, managed entry agreements/risk sharing agreements, non-communicable diseases (NCDs), global health.
Personal information:
Alessandra Ferrario is a Research Officer and a PhD candidate at the London School of Economics. Her research focuses on access to medicines and non-communicable diseases. Alessandra’s PhD is investigating how selected European countries deal with the introduction of new high-cost medicines and the implications for access. One of her current research projects investigates the burden and management of diabetes, both from a health and economic perspective, as part of a multi-country study in low- and middle-income countries. As part of her work on access to medicines, Alessandra is working with the World Health Organization on issues around availability, affordability and rational use of medicines in the Republic of Moldova. She holds an MSc in Health Policy, Planning and Financing (LSE/LSHTM), MSc in Epidemiology (Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, University of Basel) and BSc in Molecular Biology (University of Basel).
More information: LSE Experts, LSE Health
Contact details: a.ferrario@lse.ac.uk

Floridi, Ginevra
Research topic: Productive ageing and intergenerational support in familialistic welfare regimes: A study of Italy and South Korea
Supervisors: Professor Emily Grundy, Dr Benjamin Lauderdale
Research Interests:  
Population ageing in high-income countries; "active" and "productive" ageing; intergenerational support; welfare regimes and state transfers to older people; determinants of later-life activity participation; ageing and health; quantitative demography.
Personal Information: 
Born and raised in Italy, I have lived in the UK since 2010.
I hold a BSc in Economics from the University of Essex, MSc in Population and Development and MSc in Social Research Methods from the LSE, completed as part of the ESRC 1+3 Studentship in Demography. 
More information: LSE Population
Contact details:g.floridi@lse.ac.uk

Fontrier, Anna-Maria
Research topic: Quality of care in prescribing: Evidence from the UK and the US
Supervisors: Dr Panos Kanavos, Dr Irene Papanicolas
Research interests: 
Pharmaceutical economics and policy, quality of care, health technology assessment (HTA), evidence-based medicine.
Personal information:
I am of a Greek/French nationality and I am a researcher at the Medical Technology Research Group, LSE Health. I have previously worked for GiZ (German Federal Enterprise for International Cooperation) and Novartis. I hold an MSc in International Health Policy from LSE and a BSc in Chemistry and Business Administration from Aston University.
Contact details: a.fontrier@lse.ac.uk

Guzman, Wilson
Research topic: Social Policies in Ecuador: The Effects of Minimum Wages and Cash Transfers
Supervisors: Dr Berkay Ozcan, Professor Stephen Jenkins
Research interests:
Labour economics, social policies, income inequality and poverty, applied econometrics.
Personal information:
Wilson is an Ecuadorian national. He holds an MSc in Development Economics from FLACSO-Quito and an MSc in Development Studies from LSE. Before coming to LSE, he studied a pros-graduate in Econometrics at Birkbeck University. His experience includes working as a consultant for the National Secretary of Planning of Ecuador and the Inter-American Development Bank, and as a researcher at the Ministry of Social Development.
Contact details: w.guzman@lse.ac.uk

Gyori, Mario

Research topic: Poverty-targeted health and nutrition interventions in low and middle income countries
Supervisors:  Dr Joan Costa-i-Font, Professor Alistair McGuire
Research interests: 
Health Economics, Development Economics, Social Protection, Nutrition, Applied Microeconometrics, Public Policy Evaluation
Personal information:
Mario holds a B.Sc. in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Bolzano in Italy and a M.Sc. in Development Economics from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid in Spain and Lund University in Sweden. Mario is currently working as a Research Associate at the UNDP’s International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth in Brasilia, Brazil. Previously he has worked for the NGO Innovations for Poverty Action in Peru and the German Embassy in Buenos Aires. He has participated in the monitoring and evaluation of social programmes in different African and Latin American countries, including Ethiopia, Senegal, Mozambique, Brazil and Peru. 
Contact details: m.gyori@lse.ac.uk

Heller-Sahlgren, Gabriel
Research topic: Issues related to quasi-markets in education.
Supervisors: Professor Julian Legrand, Dr Olmo Silva
Research interests:
The economics of social policy, econometric evaluations, quasi-markets, user choice.
Personal information: 
Gabriel is originally from Sweden and holds a BA in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge and an MSc in Social Policy (research) from the LSE. He is affiliated with the Research Institute of Industrial Economics in Stockholm, Sweden, and the Centre for the Study of Market Reform of Education in London.
Contact details: g.heller-sahlgren@lse.ac.uk

Henderson, Catherine
Research topic:  An Economic Evaluation of Telehealth and Telecare in England  
Supervisors: Professor Martin Knapp, Dr Jose Luis Fernandez
More information: LSE Experts, PSSRU
Contact details: c.henderson@lse.ac.uk

 Hiddleston, Patricia
Research topic: Child Protection Systems in Crises.
Supervisors: Professor Eileen Munro, Dr Hakan Seckinelgin
Contact details: P.M.Hiddleston@lse.ac.uk

Iemmi, Valentina
Research topic: Mental, neurological and substance use disorders in development assistance: the role of international donors
Supervisors: Professor Martin Knapp, Dr Ernestina Coast
Research interersts:
Global mental health and mental disabilities; mental health policy, economics, and financing; international donors, development assistance, mixed methods.
Personal information:
Valentina has a background in research on economic aspects of policy and practice in the mental health and mental disabilities areas, both in high-income and low-and middle-income countries. She is currently working part-time at the Personal Social Services Research Unit at the LSE.  She has previously worked for the WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Mental Health at the King's College London, LSE Health, the International Centre for Evidence in Disability at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and for the INSERM (Unit 669) at the University of Paris V. Valentina holds a BA in Psychology, Maîtrise in Clinical Psychology (Minor: Neurosciences), MSc in Clinical Psychology, Psychopathology and Psychotherapy, and a title of Clinical Psychologist from the University of Paris (France). She also holds an MSc in Health Policy, Planning and Financing from the LSE and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (United Kingdom).
More information: LSE Experts PSSRU
Contact details: v.iemmi@lse.ac.uk

Irfan, Lamia
Research topic: Understanding Religious Identification amongst Muslim male offenders under probation supervision.
Supervisors: Dr Coretta Phillips, Professor Tim Newburn
Research interests:
Prison ethnography; religious identity and communities within secular societies; religious participation in prisons; politicisation in a prison setting; and politicisation of religion.
More information: Mannheim Centre
Contact details: l.irfan@lse.ac.uk

Kadel, Rajendra
Research topic: Understanding the Economics of Workplace Mental Health Interventions
Supervisors:  Professor Martin Knapp, Dr David McDaid
More information: LSE Experts, PSSRU
Contact: r.kadel@lse.ac.uk

Keeping, Sam
Research topic: Effective Regulation in Healthcare.
Supervisors: Professor Alistair McGuire, Professor Elias Mossialos
Research interests: Assessment and surveillance of hospital performance, incentive payments in primary and secondary care, risk perception and communication, particularly with regards to vaccination, and risks associated with complementary and alternative medicine.  
Contact details: s.t.keeping@lse.ac.uk

Knudsen, Else Marie
Research topic: Experiences of Canadian Children of Prisoners.
Supervisors: Dr Coretta Phillips, Dr Kitty Stewart
Research interests:
There is a paucity of Canadian data on the experiences of children of incarcerated parents in Canada, including estimates of how many children are affected. This study seeks to explore the impact of parental incarceration on Canadian children and the impact of the issues faced by these children on communities.
Personal information:
I'm a Danish Canadian from Toronto. A social worker by training, I worked in child protection as an investigator for several years, as well as with various community-based advocacy groups. I later worked as a policy analyst at a Canadian NGO which provides services and undertakes advocacy around the criminal justice system. I hold a BSc and MSW from the University of Toronto and an MSc in Social Policy & Planning from LSE.
More information: Mannheim Centre
Contact details: e.m.knudsen@lse.ac.uk

Kudrna, Laura
Research topic: It's not me, it's you: the effects of absolute and relative socio-economic status on subjective wellbeing. Using data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing and the wellbeing modules of the American Time Use Survey, I explore how income, wealth, education and unemployment are related to experiences and evaluations of pleasure and purpose.
Research interests:
Wellbeing, happiness, behavioural science, socio-economic status, and inequality. 
Personal information: 
I have a BSc in Psychology and an MSc in Research Methodology, and I am from Minnesota in the United States - although I have been living in London since 2005. 
Supervisors: Professor Paul Dolan,  Professor Alistair McGuire 
Contact details: L.Kudrna@lse.ac.uk

Kyriopoulos,  Ilias-Ioannis 
Research topic:  Essays on the impact of austerity on health and healthcare services: the case of Greece.
Supervisors:   
Professor Elias Mossialos, Dr Panos Kanavos
Research interests: 
Health economics, health policy, applied economics, econometrics, quantitative research, health services research, political economy, global health.
Personal information: 
Born in Greece, Ilias is a PhD Student at the LSE. He holds an MSc in Economics (Research) from the LSE and an MSc in Health Care Management from the National School of Public Health in Athens, Greece. Moreover, Ilias received his undergraduate degree (BSc in Economics) from the University of Athens. Previously, he worked as a Research Assistant at the Department of Health Economics, National School of Public Health and interned at the Economic Research Department, Bank of Greece.
More information: Personal website
Contact details: I.Kyriopoulos@lse.ac.uk 

Laffan, Kate
Research topic: An investigation in to behaviour happiness and the Environment.
Supervisors: Professor Paul Dolan, Dr Simon Dietz
Contact:  K.M.Laffan@lse.ac.uk

Lattof, Samantha
Research topic:  Migration and Reproductive Health Among Kayayei in Ghana
Supervisors:  Dr Ernestina Coast,   Dr Tiziana Leone
Research interests:
Sexual and reproductive health, migration, women's health, family planning, health policy, anthropological demography, gender, global health, population studies, urban health, mixed methods, public health
More information: Personal website, LSE Population
Contact details: s.lattof@lse.ac.uk

Lorenz, Klara
Research topic: Does the wellbeing of people providing unpaid care for people with dementia in the community vary by gender and age group?
Supervisors: Professor Martin Knapp, Professor Emily Grundy
More information: PSSRU
Contact details: k.lorenz@lse.ac.uk

MacLennan, Mary
Research topic: Public reporting and health system performance
Supervisors: Professor Alistair McGuire, Dr Irene Papanicolas
Research interests:
Health economics, health system performance, equity, behavioural economics
Personal information:
Mary has experience working for governments, academia and international organisations. Most recently, she led research and evaluation work at the Innovation Hub in the Government of Canada's Privy Council Office. She has worked on the World Health Report at the WHO in Geneva; on the Bill and Melinda Gates funded and World Bank published Disease Control Priorities Project; and as a health economist at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) in Dhaka. She has also worked in Senior Consultant capacities for the Australian Department of Health and the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care. Mary is Canadian and completed her MSc degree at the LSE in International Health Policy focusing in Health Economics, and her BA&Sc from McGill University double majoring in Economics and Biomedical Sciences.
Contact details: m.e.maclennan@lse.ac.uk

Malley, Juliette
Research topic: The statistical adjustment of survey-based measures: overcoming problems of bias and precision in assessing social care performance.
Supervisors: Dr Jose-Luis Fernandez, Professor Martin Knapp
More information: LSE Experts, PSSRU
Contact details: j.n.malley@lse.ac.uk

Mariani, Elena
Research topic: Job satisfaction and family context.
Supervisors: Professor Stephen Jenkins, Dr Berkay Ozcan
Research interests: Labour economics, population economics, impact of family on work, well-being at the workplace.
More information: CASE, personal webpage, LSE Population
Contact details: E.Mariani@lse.ac.uk

Mathers, Nicholas
Research topic:  Poverty, cash transfers and adolescents' lives: exploring the unintended consequences of Nepal's social pension
Supervisors: Dr Kitty Stewart, Dr Ernestina Coast
Research interests:
The role of social protection programmes in tackling poverty and vulnerability in low income countries; social protection, livelihoods and inclusive growth; multi-dimensional child poverty and vulnerability; child protection, social norms and children’s rights.
Personal information:
British, living in London and Kathmandu 
More information: Member of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE),  LinkedIn
Publications: Social protection and growth: Research Synthesis, Nicholas Mathers and Rachel Slater (2014)
Contact details: n.j.mathers@lse.ac.uk

Mohun Himmelweit, Sam    
Research topic: Family policy change in England and Germany
Supervisors: Dr Timo Fleckenstein, Professor Jane Lewis
Research interests: 
Comparative social policy, Welfare state regimes, Welfare state continuity and change, Institutional and ideational theories, Family policy, Social investment policies.
Personal information: 
Sam is from London and holds an undergraduate degree in History from the University of Edinburgh and an MSc in European Social Policy from the LSE. Prior to starting his PhD, he worked for four years as a researcher for the consumer policy organisation, Which?, where he focused on behavioural research specifically in financial services policy. He has also worked for other think tanks and spent time working in Berlin for a policy consultancy in 2014. Sam’s doctoral research is funded by the ESRC.
Contact details: s.f.mohun-himmelweit@lse.ac.uk 

Mok, Tze Ming 
Research topic:  Do structural factors affect identity choices for 'mixed ethnicity' people in the UK?
Supervisors:  Professor Lucinda Platt ,Dr Kitty Stewart  
Research interests: 
Ethnic penalties and labour market inequalities, discrimination, critical race theory, critical whiteness, mixed methods research. She is currently analysing whether structural factors such as labour market outcomes and ethnic density may be associated with different forms of ethnicity fluctuation and identity choices for the 'mixed ethnicity' categories in the UK. The quantitative analysis is using the UK Household Longitudinal Survey (Understanding Society), the ONS Longitudinal Study, and the Citizenship Survey. She also plans to undertake qualitative interviewing that can explain key associations, for example though a case study approach that looks at how a specific 'mixed' subgroup engages with ethnicity monitoring.
Personal information: 
A New Zealander with UK residency, Tze Ming has an MA in Political Studies from Auckland University and an MSc in Social Research Methods (Social Policy) from the LSE. Prior to starting her PhD, her background was in communications, advocacy, policy and policy research for human rights, equalities, development and social welfare. 
Contact details:  t.m.mok@lse.ac.uk

Mullins, Philippa
Research topic: Discontinuity of the Russian welfare model for people with disabilities: state, civil society, and rights realisation
Supervisors: Dr Armine Ishkanian, Professor David Lewis
Research interests:
Social policy reform, civil society, human rights, disability rights, qualitative research methods.
Contact details: p.s.mullins@lse.ac.uk

Nandagiri,  Rishita 
Research topic: Understanding Abortion and Abortion-Related Decision-Making in India: A Mixed Methods Study
Supervisors:  Dr Ernestina Coast, Dr Tiziana Leone
Research interests: 
Abortion, sexual and reproductive health, reproductive justice, feminist organising, post colonial feminism, adolescent health
Personal information: 
Rishita has a background in sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), feminist organising. She has previously worked for the Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR) and the Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women . Her research is a mixed-methods study exploring women's abortion and abortion-related decision-making processes in India. She currently serves on the WGNRR Board of Directors, and volunteers with Blank Noise; a colective based out of Bangalore, India.
More information:  LSE Population, personal site
Contact details:  r.nandagiri@lse.ac.uk

Ng, Jessica
Research topic: LGBT Organisational Adaptations in Post-Same-Sex Marriage Canada
Supervisors: Professor David Lewis, Dr Timothy Hildebrandt
Research interests:
NGOs, civil society and the third sector, organisational change, LGBT activism and social movements, sexualities, HIV/AIDS, political economy, decentralisation, development, contemporary Canada, China (PRC)
Personal information:
Jess is from Toronto, Canada, and holds an Honours BA in Canadian Studies and Sexual Diversity Studies from the University of Toronto, and an MSc in Social Policy and Development (NGOs) from the LSE. A doctoral fellow of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, she previously taught as a graduate teaching assistant on the LSE-Peking University Summer Programme prior to joining the PhD programme in Social Policy. Her research has appeared in government consultative reports, scholarly form, and on the theatre stage as experimental performance-based research.
More information: Personal web page
Contact details: j.ng10@lse.ac.uk

Palfreyman, Alexis D.
Research topic:  Deliberate self-harm and suicide in women of reproductive age in low income settings
Supervisors: Dr Ernestina Coast, Dr Arjan Gjonca
Personal information:
Alexis has a professional background in sexual/reproductive and maternal/child health and HIV/AIDS research and programme management. She’s worked on multiple international MNCH programmes in Africa and Asia and undertaken UK-based research with the National Health Service focused predominantly on understanding health behaviour, service access and delivery for vulnerable and marginalised populations. More recently, as Programme Manager with the School Health and Nutrition (SHN) team at Imperial College London's Partnership for Child Development, she provided support for capacity- and partnership-building initiatives with SHN & HIV practitioners and policy-makers across Africa and South(east) Asia. Originally from the US, Alexis is a dual British-American national based in London, having lived in the US, UK and Belgium. She holds a BA in Psychology from Hanover College, and two masters degrees in International Maternal and Child Health from UCL's Institute of Child Health (2008) and Social Research Methods from the London School of Economics (2014).  
More information:  LSE Population
Contact details: a.d.palfreyman@lse.ac.uk

Palillo, Marco
Research topic: An intersectional analysis of refugee masculinities, understanding men’s risky health behaviours in the context of the refugee experience
Supervisors: Dr Coretta Phillips, Dr Hakan Seckinelgin
Research interests:
Masculinity, Identity politics, Migration, Minority Perspectives, Health, Ethnography, Sexuality, International relations, Human geography, Qualitative research, Globalization and transnationalism, LGBTI, Feminist Theory, Intersections between gender, race, and class, Health inequalities.
Personal information:
Born and Raised in Italy, Marco holds a BSc (First class with honours) in Political Science from Sapienza University of Rome, a Master's degree (with distinction) in International Relations from Luiss-Guido Carli University of Rome and a Master’s degree in Social Policy (Research) from LSE. His professional experience includes four years as senior legislative assistant at the Italian Parliament. He has written for mainstream press such as Huffington Post-Italy.
Contact details:  M.Palillo@lse.ac.uk

Paredes-Torres, Tatiana
Research topic: Improving the life chances of poor children in Ecuador: the role of cash transfers and micro-credit.
Research interests: 
Impact evaluation, labor economics, applied micro-econometrics, public economics, efficiency analysis, among others. 
Personal information:
Tatiana holds a BA in Economics from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, a BA in Economie et Gestion from Universite Pierre-Mendes-Grenoble 2 and a MSc from Paris School of Economics.  She has worked as RA at the Grantham Research Institute and previously for several public institutions in Ecuador. 
Supervisors: Professor Alistair McGuire, Professor Stephen Jenkins
Contact details: t.v.paredes-torres@lse.ac.uk

Park, Jaehyoung 
Research topic:   The Political Economy of Social Investment Policies: Evidence from the OECD countries
Supervisors:  Dr Timo Fleckenstein, Professor Lucinda Platt
Research interests: 
My research question is (1) to what extent social investment policies have an effect on socio-economic performance indicators such as poverty, inequality, employment, and economic growth; and (2) whether such effects can reliably hinge on country-specific policy design and institutions; and (3) when social investment priorities are successfully implemented.
Personal information: 
I'm interested in quantitative cross-national analysis and fiscal sustainability of social welfare states including medium- and long-term forecasts of social expenditure. In 2014/15, I studied an MSc European and Comparative Social Policy at LSE as a recipient of the Chevening scholarship. I'm currently also a director in the Ministry of Strategy and Finance (MOSF) of Korea which is equivalent of HM Treasury in the UK. For fourteen years since I completed a master's as well as bachelor’s degree in economics at Seoul National University of Korea, I have worked for the ministry, mainly at the National Budget Office and Economic Policy Bureau. Particularly, I was in charge of the allocation of social welfare budget for the 2011 and 2012 fiscal year of Korea. During my years of public service, I taught economics at the ROK Air Force Academy for three years and public finance at the Central Official Training Institute for one year. 
Contact details:  J.H.Park8@lse.ac.uk

Philipp, Julia 
Research topic: The role of social norms and social identities for women's labour market choices
Supervisors:  Dr Joan Costa-Font, Dr Berkay Ozcan 
Research interests:
Labour economics, social economics (social norms, social identity, culture), gender inequalities in labour market outcomes, work-family policies, preferences for redistribution and attitudes towards the government.
Personal information:
Julia holds an MSc in Economics and an MSc in Environment & Development from the London School of Economics. Prior to her PhD, she worked as a consultant at the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C. 
Contact details: j.k.philipp@lse.ac.uk

Prieto,  Joaquin 
Research topic:  Poverty dynamics and labor informality in Chile over the period 1996-2012: has informality become a bridge to escape poverty or a trap to stay in it? 
Supervisors:  Professor Stephen Jenkins, Dr Grace Lordan
Research interests: 
Longitudinal Survey Methodology and Survey Quality, Poverty Dynamics and Labour Mobility, Applied Microeconometrics and Social Policies.
Personal information:
Joaquin is from Santiago, Chile, and currently living in London. He holds a BA in Industrial Engineering, an MSc in Economy and Environmental Management and post-graduated studies in Sociology from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. He founded and directed the Social Observatory Center at Universidad Alberto Hurtado (2005-2012). He is associate professor in the Department of Sociology at Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Chile.
Contact details:  J.J.Prieto-Suarez@lse.ac.uk

Ramos, Roberta
Research topic: Why have benefit-sharing arrangements in bio-prospection agreements generally lacked fairness and equity as proposed by the Convention on Biological Diversity?
Supervisors: Professor Anthony Hall, Dr Sunil Kumar
Research interests:
Environmental policy in Brazil, payment for environmental services (PES), REDD, biopiracy and indigenous/traditional communities of the Amazon.
Personal information: Brazilian
Contact details:  r.p.ramos@lse.ac.uk

Ratzmann,  Nora 
Research topic: Migrants' (un)equal worlds of welfare access within the enlarged European Union.
Supervisors: Professor Hartley Dean, Dr Isabel Shutes
Research interests: 
Nora's research examines EU migrants' (in)equalities of access to German social security, with a particular focus on their interactions with the street-level bureaucracy. Her broader research interests centre around social security, poverty and inequality as well as migration and integration policy.
Personal information: 
Nora, a German national, holds an MSc in Social Policy and Development from the LSE, and an MSc in Global Governance and Diplomacy from the University of Oxford. She gained first work experience at the public policy research institute RAND Europe, the International Institute for Educational Planning IIEP-UNESCO and AEGIS Trust Rwanda.
More information: Nora is a Leverhulme Doctoral Candidate at the LSE International Inequality Institute; she is also associated to the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion CASE, and the German Social Science Research Centre Berlin.
Contact details: n.ratzmann@lse.ac.uk

Rosenkrantz Woskie, Liana
Research topic: Leveraging Patient Experience for Health System Improvement in Low Resource Contexts 
Supervisors: Professor Elias Mossialos, Dr Huseyin Naci
Research interests:
International Health Policy, Quality of Care & Global Governance
Personal information:
Liana is a PhD candidate at LSE and also serves as the Assistant Director of the Harvard Initiative on Global Health Quality (HIGHQ). Prior to these roles, Liana studied insurance continuity with the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (US) and was a Global Health Corps Fellow at Partner’s In Health’s PACT Project, an HIV/AIDS direct service organization. Interested in governments’ role in delivering patient-centered care, Liana has worked in over 10 countries studying iterations of the community health worker model including Rwanda, Bangladesh and Thailand. Most recently, working with Dr. Ashish Jha, she launched HIGHQ; an effort to design and evaluate health policies that improve care quality at the regional and national levels. She also served as the coordinator for the Harvard-LSHTM panel on the global response to Ebola and has managed projects on WHO financing and reform. Liana holds a BA from Wesleyan University and completed the HPPF program at LSE and LSHTM as a Global Grant Scholar.
Contact details: L.R.Woskie@lse.ac.uk

Saenz de Miera Juarez, Belen
Research topic: Effects of the expansion of health insurance.
Supervisors: Dr Joan Costa-Font, Professor Alistair McGuire
Contact details: B.Saenz-De-Miera-Juarez@lse.ac.uk

Salas-Vega, Sebastian
Research topic: Drivers of Quality in Health Care: A Disease-Oriented Examination of the Determinants Underlying Provider-and Patient-Level Mortality from Acute Myocardial Infarction across England.
Supervisors: Professor Elias Mossialos, Professor Alistair McGuire
Contact details: S.Salas-Vega@lse.ac.uk

Salcher, Maximilian
Research topic: Using real world evidence and evidence from randomised controlled trials for healthcare regulatory decision-making
Supervisors: Professor Alistair McGuire, Dr Huseyin Naci
Research interests: 
Maximilian’s research interests include evidence synthesis, study design, decision-making at the patient and population levels and economic evaluation. His PhD research focuses on real world evidence and its role in comparison to evidence from randomised controlled trials in regulatory decision-making.
Personal information:
Maximilian is a Research Officer at LSE Health and part-time student in the MPhil/PhD Social Policy programme at LSE. Having completed his undergraduate studies in economics and gained experience as a research assistant in his native land, Austria, he moved to London in 2013. He obtained his MSc in Health Policy, Planning and Financing from LSE and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2014 and has since worked as a Research Officer at LSE Health.
More information:
Profile on the LSE Health webpage
Contact details: m.salcher@lse.ac.uk

Sochas, Laura
Research topic: Inequalities of access to and outcomes in maternal and neonatal health in Southern Africa
Supervisors: Dr Tiziana Leone, Dr Ernestina Coast
Research interests: 
Health inequalities; social determinants of health; gender; human resources for health; advocacy; spatial analysis; causal inference; mixed methods.
Personal information: 
Laura is French and American and holds an MSc in Research Methods and an MPA in International Development from the LSE. She previously worked as a consultant on maternal and new-born health issues for clients such as DFID, UNFPA, and the UN Secretary General's office.
Contact details: l.sochas@lse.ac.uk

Stevens, Madeleine
Research topic: Using parents’ experiences to investigate how to prevent high risk children developing antisocial and criminal behaviour
Supervisors: Professor Jennifer Beecham,  Professor Anne Power
Research Interests:
Raising children in difficult circumstances, impact and cost-effectiveness of interventions, social exclusion. This study looks at support for high need families with children with conduct disorders, families where there are additional risk factors predicting children’s longer term behavioural problems. An in-depth study of ten families over 3-4 years will be combined with analysis of similar families in existing longitudinal data sets. The aim is to investigate what services families have contact with, how their pattern of service use and attitudes to services change over time, how these relate to changes in the child’s behaviour and what else families think would help.
Personal Information:
The PhD is funded by a doctoral research fellowship from the NIHR.
More information: LSE Experts, PSSRU, Eprints
Contact details: m.stevens@lse.ac.uk   

Summers, Kate
Research topic: Money and Meaning: Understanding how working age households use social security money.
Supervisors: Professor Hartley Dean, Professor John Hills
Research interests:
Social security, Intra-household finances, Welfare reform, the sociology of money.
Personal information: 
Kate holds a BA in Modern History from the University of Oxford and an MSc in Social Policy Research from the LSE. Previously she has worked as a researcher for the Social Issues Research Centre in Oxford and for the think tank The Work Foundation. Kate’s doctoral research is funded by the ESRC.
More information: CASE, Twitter
Contact details: k.summers@lse.ac.uk 

Suss, Joel
Research topic: The consequences of economic inequality for individual behaviour and decision-making.
Supervisors: Professor Paul Dolan, Professor John Hills
Research interests:
I am interested in the intersection of inequality studies and behavioural science. I am looking to explore, through experiments, how people’s behavior and decision-making is affected by their experience of inequality and distributional position. 
Personal information:
I am a dual citizen of Canada and France. I grew up in Montreal where I completed a BA in Political Science. I arrived in London in 2011 to study for a Master’s in Public Administration. Following graduation, I was Managing Editor of the LSE’s British Politics and Policy blog from 2013 to 2015. Since September 2015 I’ve been working for the Bank of England. 
More information:
I am affiliated with the LSE International Inequalities Institute and funded through the Leverhulme Trust Programme.  I am also affiliated with the LSE’s Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE). You can follow me on Twitter:@JoelSuss
Contact details: j.suss@lse.ac.uk

Temporin, Filippo 
Research topic:   The effects of poverty and inequality on child mortality: the case of Bolivia.
Supervisors: Dr Arjan Gjonca, Professor Fiona Steele
Research interests:
Quantitative research methods, demographic analysis, child mortality, Bayesian population projections.My research aims at assessing deprivation and inequality as determinants of child mortality in Bolivia, a country in which poverty is widespread, especially in rural areas. It focuses on the determinants of the death clustering phenomenon as well, by means of multilevel frailty models.
Personal information: 
I am Italian. I hold a BA and a MSc both in Statistical Sciences from, respectively, University of Padova and Bologna. I studied at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and Universidade de São Paulo as international student, and I wrote my MSc thesis at Instituto de Economía, Geografía y Demografía, belonging to Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas in Madrid.
More information:  LSE Population
Contact details: F.Temporin@lse.ac.uk

Testoni, Stefano 
Research topic: Attending to experiences of pleasure and purpose: the economics of human behaviour and subjective wellbeing.
Supervisors: Professor Paul Dolan,  Dr Matteo Galizzi
Research interests:
My research is devoted to the study and theoretical modelling of subjective wellbeing and its behavioural antecedents. I also have a general interest in behavioural microeconomics and psychology, with a focus on judgment and decision making.
Personal information:
BSc in economics and finance (Universita’ Bocconi); MSc in behavioural and economic science (University of Warwick)
Contact details: S.Testoni@lse.ac.uk

Townsend, Matthew
Research topic: A search for greater value: The introduction of financial incentives to encourage greater health care integration.
Supervisors: Professor Alistair McGuire, Dr Irini Papanicolas
Research interests:
Matthew is examining whether the introduction of quality-based financial incentives may facilitate more integrated and patient-centred models of care in Canada and England. Additional research interests include: the economics of health care, health insurance, performance incentives, economic evaluation, governance and clinical quality. 
Personal information: 
Matthew is a Canadian national based at LSE Health. Prior to pursuing his PhD, he worked on several projects related to hospital and community funding reform as a Senior Consultant and Policy Advisor at the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care in Ontario. Matthew is a former fellow in the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Strategic Training Program in Public Health Policy. He holds degrees from the University of Melbourne (BA), University of Trinity College (BSc) and School of Public Policy and Governance (MPP) at the University of Toronto. He recently completed an MSc in Health Economics, Policy and Management at the LSE.
More information: LSE Health
Contact details: m.d.townsend@lse.ac.uk

Trigg, Lisa
Research topic: Improving the quality of long-term care for older people through the use of quality standards and best practice guidelines: a comparative study of approaches in residential care in England and Australia.
Supervisors: Dr Jose-Luis Fernandez, Dr Isabel Shutes
Research interests:
Quality of long-term care, best practice, public reporting and user feedback, choice and decision-making.
Personal information: Lisa has Masters degrees in International Development from the University of Bath and in Health Policy, Planning and Financing from the LSE and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Her PhD is funded by a Doctoral Research Fellowship from the National Institute for Health Research.  She is based in the Personal Social Services Research Unit.
More information: LSE Experts, PSSRU
Contact details: l.j.trigg@lse.ac.uk

Vaisanen, Heini
Research topic: A Life Course Perspective to Abortion in Finland.
Supervisors: Professor Mike Murphy, Dr Tiziana Leone 
Research interests: 
Demography, especially reproductive health with emphasis on induced abortions, contraceptive use and unintended pregnancies over the life course. Longitudinal and multilevel modelling, and other quantitative research methods.
Personal information: 
In my thesis I study how the life course pathways of women having abortions differ from other women in socioeconomic and fertility terms; how these differences may depend on having several abortions versus only having one; and whether these associations have changed across cohorts using Finnish register data. The PhD is funded by Economic and Social Research Council. I have completed an MSc in Social Research Methods at LSE in 2012 and MSocSc in Sociology in University of Helsinki in 2010 and visited École Normale Supérieure in Paris in academic year 2007/2008.
More information: LSE Personal profile, LSE Population
Contact details: h.e.vaisanen@lse.ac.uk

Vandemoortele, Milagros (Milo)
Research topic: Inequality in Attainment: Parental Resources and Children’s Cognitive Development in Four Low and Middle Income Countries.
Supervisor: Professor Stephen Jenkins, Dr Kitty Stewart
Research interests: 
Inequality, Intergenerational Issues, Development, Economics, Measurement.
Personal information: 
Milo Vandemoortele’s research interests lie in examining the association between parental resources and child development in developing countries. She is a graduate teaching assistant at the Department for Methodology, in quantitative subjects.  Prior to LSE, Milo worked as a researcher at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI, London) in the Growth, Poverty and Inequality Programme.
Milo has a degree in economics (University of Pennsylvania) and an MPhil in Development Studies (Institute of Development Studies-Sussex). As part of the ESRC 1+3 doctoral training programme she obtained an MSc in Social Research Methods at the LSE. She is fluent in Spanish, French and Dutch.
More information: CASE, LSE Personal Website, LSE Population
Contact details: m.vandemoortele@lse.ac.uk

Vanni, Monique
Research topic: Global Production Networks of Non Timber Forest Products-  the açaí experience.
Supervisors: Professor Anthony Hall, Dr Tim Forsyth
Contact details: m.vanni@lse.ac.uk

Williams,  Gemma 
Research topic:   A quantitative exploration of inequalities in health and access to health care for migrants in Europe.
Supervisors:  Professor Elias Mossialos, Professor Alistair McGuire
Research interests: 
Health inequalities; migrant health; health behaviours; health financing; developing countries.
Personal information: 
Gemma is from London, England and is a Research Officer at LSE Health and a part-time PhD candidate in the Department of Social Policy, LSE. Gemma is currently working on projects researching migrant health in Europe, social health protection in Africa and Asia and medical technology innovations in the NHS. She has previously worked as a health economist in the Rwandan Ministry of Health and for a HIV/AIDS NGO in Ahmedabad, India. She holds a MSc in International Development Studies from the Universiteit van Amsterdam and a BA in Economics from the University of Sheffield. 
More information: LSE Experts, LSE Health 
Contact details: g.a.williams@lse.ac.uk

Wouters, Olivier
Research topic: The impact of supply-side policies on outpatient generic drug prices
Supervisors: Dr Panos Kanavos, Professor Alistair McGuire
Research interests: 
The pricing and reimbursement of medicines, the availability and affordability of medicines, and the quality of pharmacologic care.
Personal information: 
Olivier has conducted research for the OECD, the World Bank, and the WHO. He was previously a visiting research fellow at the Health Economics Unit, School of Public Health and Family Medicine, University of Cape Town. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and a Master’s degree in International Health Policy (Health Economics) from the LSE.
More information: LSE Experts, LSE Health
Contact details: O.J.Wouters@lse.ac.uk