astronomy

Patricia Priest

Patricia Priest is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Patricia Priest rather than just read about it. In short: Patricia Priest is a New Zealand public health scientist and epidemiologist who is Professor of Public Health in Medicine at the University of Otago. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Priest served as an advisor to the New Zealand Ministry of Health.

Key takeaways

Patricia Priest belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Patricia Priest to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Patricia Priest from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Patricia Priest is a New Zealand public health scientist and epidemiologist who is Professor of Public Health in Medicine at the University of Otago. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Priest served as an advisor to the New Zealand Ministry of Health. She was awarded an Ig Nobel Prize in 2010. As of 2024 Priest is the Acting Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the Division of Health Sciences at the university.

Early life and education Priest was a doctoral researcher at the University of Oxford. She investigated the relationship between prescribing antibiotics and antibiotic resistance in the community.

Research and career Priest's research considers epidemiology and public health. In 2010, Priest and collaborators Lianne Parkin and Sheila Williams were jointly awarded an Ig Nobel Prize, which is awarded by Annals of Improbable Research for bizarre scientific discoveries. They were recognised for their work that identified walking with socks over shoes resulted in a frosty floor feeling less slippery than people walking without socks. Priest studied the relationship between gardening and contracting Legionnaires' disease. She identified that Legionella longbeachae, which is present in compost and potting soil, could contribute to infection with Legionnaires' disease. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Priest was appointed to the New Zealand Ministry of Health Technical Advisory Group, where she oversaw activity on epidemiology. She was responsible for advising the Ministry on surveillance and monitoring for COVID-19. Early in 2020, Priest recommended that people wear masks to limit transmission of the virus. She was worried that students would be responsible for spreading COVID-19. In 2022, Priest was appointed as the acting Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the Division of Health Sciences at the University of Otago.

Selected publications

David R Murdoch; Sandy Slow; Stephen T Chambers; et al. (1 October 2012). "Effect of vitamin D3 supplementation on upper respiratory tract infections in healthy adults: the VIDARIS randomized controlled trial". JAMA. 308 (13): 1333–1339. doi:10.1001/jama.2012.12505. ISSN 0098-7484. PMID 23032549. Wikidata Q34303576. Sarah Jefferies; Nigel French; Charlotte Gilkison; et al. (October 2020). "COVID-19 in New Zealand and the impact of the national response: a descriptive epidemiological study". Lancet Public Health. doi:10.1016/s2468-2667(20)30225-5. ISSN 2468-2667. PMC 7553903. PMID 33065023. Wikidata Q100397055. Irene Higginson; P Priest; M McCarthy (1 February 1994). "Are bereaved family members a valid proxy for a patient's assessment of dying?". Social Science & Medicine. 38 (4): 553–557. doi:10.1016/0277-9536(94)90251-8. ISSN 0277-9536. PMID 7514313. Wikidata Q51136627.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Patricia Priest

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Patricia Priest claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Patricia Priest before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Patricia Priest ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Patricia Priest

In research: Patricia Priest appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Patricia Priest in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Patricia Priest is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 21st-century New Zealand social scientists, 21st-century New Zealand women scientists, Academic staff of the University of Otago, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Patricia Priest outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Patricia Priest in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Patricia Priest means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Patricia Priest out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Patricia Priest in simple terms?

Why does Patricia Priest matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Patricia Priest?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Patricia Priest.