I am Stuart Gilmour, professor of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics. I was appointed this April after 7 years at the University of Tokyo. I was born in New Zealand and raised in Britain and Australia, where I completed my education in mathematical physics, public health and statistics. I worked for 10 years in clinics and research centres focusing on HIV/AIDS and the health of marginalized people such as injecting drug users, sex workers and at risk youth. My research interests are in the use of statistical methods to study health inequality, quantitative assessment of health systems and policies, and analysis of interventions targeting important health problems. As the health problems we face become more complex and intractable, and human society faces the consequences of the epidemiological and demographic transition, increasingly sophisticated statistical methods are required to understand which interventions and policies work, and how health systems need to be changed. I use a mixture of classical statistical methods, Bayesian statistics, and simulation and modeling to look at diverse problems facing health systems across the world. I believe that through the proper use of statistical methods we can analyze interventions, evaluate policies, and understand the health challenges facing modern health systems, and I try to collaborate with people in government, clinical settings and the policy world both nationally and internationally to advance the cause of health for all.

I also believe that statistics should be accessible to all, and I try to teach statistics in a way that makes it understood and usable by students with no advanced mathematics or statistics background. By preparing students to comfortably use statistics in their working life, and communicating statistical concepts clearly and simply to my collaborators in clinical and policy environments, I hope to demystify this increasingly important field in public health, and contribute to a public health environment, both in Japan and internationally, where people are comfortable using statistical tools, recognize their value, and can use them independently to advance their policy and health goals. Ultimately, if we can all better understand the huge amounts of information in the modern health system, we can improve health for everyone, and this is what I hope to do through my work at the St. Luke’s International University Graduate School of Public Health.

Stuart Gilmour