10th August 2022

Population Data Science Co-Director Elected To The Academia Europaea

CO-DIRECTOR OF POPULATION DATA SCIENCE AND CLINICAL PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC HEALTH AT SWANSEA UNIVERSITY, PROFESSOR RONAN LYONS, OBE, FMEDSCI, HAS BEEN ELECTED TO A PRESTIGIOUS EUROPEAN BODY, THE ACADEMIA EUROPAEA.

‘The object of Academia Europaea is the advancement and propagation of excellence in scholarship in the humanities, law, the economic, social, and political sciences, mathematics, medicine, and all branches of natural and technological sciences anywhere in the world for the public benefit and for the advancement of the education of the public of all ages.’ – https://www.ae-info.org/

The focus of Ronan’s research is the use of routinely collected data to better understand factors that influence health and wellbeing and developing and evaluating interventions aimed to improve the health of the public. He has led some of the largest studies ever undertaken in this field and contributed substantially to better understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences at a Wales, UK and European level.

Following a competitive membership election process, Professor Lyons was recommended for Academia Europaea membership by the appropriate Academic Section and a peer review by the relevant Class Committee.

Speaking following the announcement, Professor Lyons, said, “It is a real honour to join the ranks of the prestigious Academia Europaea. This honour is a recognition of the shared efforts and hard work of the various teams and partners I’ve had the privilege of working with over the years. None more so than over the last two years, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Through the European Population Health Information Research Infrastructure (PHIRI) Project we’re developing research infrastructure to generate the best COVID-19 population health knowledge. The multi-disciplinary, One Wales working group provided crucial evidence to Welsh Government’s response to COVID-19 community transmission and informed policy development across the UK. And the International COVID-19 Data Alliance (ICODA) partnership with Health Data Research UK and the Bills Gates Foundation and others, is supporting a globally coordinated approach to tackling Covid and future threats.

This has been an incredibly challenging period for us all and I’m enormously proud that these labours have been acknowledged and rewarded by this election.”

Professor Lyons now joins over 5000 other eminent, individual scientists and scholars, who cover a broad range of academic disciplines that include former Nobel Prize laureates, Turing Award recipients and Fields Medal winners.