biology

Roy M. Anderson

Roy M. Anderson is a biology 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 Roy M. Anderson rather than just read about it. In short: Sir Roy Malcolm Anderson (born 12 April 1947) is a leading international authority on the epidemiology and control of infectious diseases. He is the author, with Robert May, of the most highly cited book in this field, entitled Infectious Diseases of Humans: Dynamics and Control.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Sir Roy Malcolm Anderson (born 12 April 1947) is a leading international authority on the epidemiology and control of infectious diseases. He is the author, with Robert May, of the most highly cited book in this field, entitled Infectious Diseases of Humans: Dynamics and Control. His early work was on the population ecology of infectious agents before focusing on the epidemiology and control of human infections. His published research includes studies of the major viral, bacterial and parasitic infections of humans, wildlife and livestock. This has included major studies on HIV, SARS, foot and mouth disease, bovine tuberculosis, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), influenza A, antibiotic resistant bacteria, the neglected tropical diseases and most recently COVID-19. Anderson is the author of over 650 peer-reviewed scientific articles with an h-index of 125.

Education and early life Anderson was born the son of James Anderson and Betty Watson-Weatherburn. He attended Duncombe School, Bengeo and Richard Hale School. He was awarded a first-class Bachelor of Science degree in zoology at Imperial College London followed by a PhD degree in parasitology in 1971.

Career and research He moved to the Biomathematics Department at the University of Oxford as an IBM research fellow working on stochastic models of infectious disease spread under Professor Maurice Bartlett FRS. He was appointed to a Lectureship in Parasitology at King's College London in 1974 before moving back to Imperial as a lecturer in Ecology and then becoming Professor of Parasite Ecology in 1982. He was head of the Department of Biology from 1984 to 1993. At Imperial College, he also served as Director of the Wellcome Centre for Parasite Infections from 1989 to 1993. In 1993 Anderson moved to the University of Oxford where he was head of the Zoology department and held the Linacre Chair of Zoology at Merton College, Oxford until 2000. During this time he founded and served as Director of the Wellcome Centre for the Epidemiology of Infectious Disease - the first such centre in the UK entirely focused on research into the epidemiology and control of infectious diseases - until he resigned "following two damning reports on the way that the centre has been managed", however the director of the Wellcome Trust noted that there was “no question of the scientific credibility of Roy Anderson or the centre. It is doing first class work and our priority is to maintain that.”. His former doctoral students include Angela Mclean.

Chief Scientific Advisor of the Ministry of Defence He was chief scientific advisor to the UK Ministry of Defence from October 2004 to September 2007. After that, he returned to his chair in Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Imperial College London.

Rector of Imperial College Anderson was appointed the 14th Rector of Imperial College on 1 July 2008. In his time as Rector he focused on strengthening the emphasis on teaching as well as world renown research at Imperial, and on securing a new site in the White City, West London, to facilitate the expansion of Imperial's molecular and biomedical research, halls of residence, support for innovation and entrepreneurship and teaching facilities. He also negotiated the first overseas campus venture for Imperial in partnership with Nanyang Technological University in Singapore which led to the creation of the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine in Singapore designed to train doctors to meet Singapore Healthcare needs. He tendered his resignation in November 2009 stating his wish to return to his primary interest in scientific research on global health issues.

Director of the London Centre for Neglected Tropical Disease Research He established the London Centre for Neglected Tropical Diseases (LCNTDR) in 2013. The LCNTDR was launched with the aim of providing focused operational and research support for NTD control. The LCNTDR member institutions house leading NTD experts with a wide range of specialties, making the centre a valuable resource for cross-sectoral research and collaboration. It is a joint initiative between the Royal Veterinary College, Imperial College London, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and the Natural History Museum, London.

Membership of Councils, Boards and Committees (National and International) He has sat on numerous government and international agency committees advising on public health and disease control including the World Health Organization, The European Commission, UNAIDS, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He is currently a Vice-President of Fauna Flora International, Chairman of Oriole Global Health Limited, Director of the London Centre for Neglected Tropical Disease Research, Trustee of the Banga Trust and a Trustee of the London Institute for Mathematical Sciences. He was a non-executive director of GlaxoSmithKline 2008–2018, a member of the International Advisory Board of Hakluyt and Company Ltd. 2008–2019, and Chairman of the International Advisory Board of PTTGC Company Thailand, 2014–2018. Other memberships:

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Roy M. Anderson

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Roy M. Anderson claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, 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 Roy M. Anderson 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 Roy M. Anderson 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 Roy M. Anderson

In research: Roy M. Anderson appears in biology 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 Roy M. Anderson 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: Roy M. Anderson is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1947 births, Alumni of Imperial College London, Biologists of Imperial College London, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Roy M. Anderson 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 Roy M. Anderson in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Roy M. Anderson 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 Roy M. Anderson out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Roy M. Anderson in simple terms?

Why does Roy M. Anderson matter?

Because it connects several biology 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 Roy M. Anderson?

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 Roy M. Anderson.