Executive Dean of School of Engineering, Physical & Mathematical Sciences and Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Partnerships & External Collaboration)
Gavin Shaddick joined Royal Holloway, University of London as Executive Dean of Engineering, Physical & Mathematical Sciences in August 2022. He was appointed as Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Partnerships & External Collaboration in September 2023. Gavin was previously Chair in Data Science and Statistics at the University of Exeter, where he was the Head of Department of Mathematics between 2017 and 2020. At Exeter, Gavin was the Director of the Exeter UK Research and Innovation Centre for Doctoral Training in Environmental Intelligence: Data Science and AI for Sustainable Futures and co-Director of the Met Office-Exeter Joint Centre of Excellence in Environmental Intelligence.
Gavin has a PhD in Statistics and Epidemiology from Imperial College, London, an MSc in Statistics from University College, London, and a BSc in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Warwick. After studying for his MSc, he started his career as a researcher at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine before moving to Imperial College. After a time outside of academia working in industry, Gavin returned to Imperial College as a research fellow during which time he completed his PhD (part-time). Gavin then joined the University of Bath as a lecturer in the Department of Mathematical Sciences, where he stayed for many enjoyable years and was promoted to Professor of Statistics and Data Science.
Gavin’s research lies at the interface of AI, big data and environmental science. His research has led to major impact across a variety of fields including environmental modelling, epidemiology, the global burden of disease and public health. Gavin is a Turing Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute, the UK’s national Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, where he leads on Environment and Sustainability. He is a member of the UK government’s Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP) and the sub-group on Quantification of Air Pollution Risk (QUARK) . Gavin leads the World Health Organization’s Data Integration Taskforce for Global Air Quality and led the development and implementation of the World Health Organization (WHO)'s Data Integration Model for Air Quality (DIMAQ). Building upon this, Gavin is actively involved in producing a number of air pollution related United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal indicators for the WHO and UN.
