Rate My Professor Christl Donnelly

Christl Donnelly is Professor of Applied Statistics in the Department of Statistics at the University of Oxford, a position she has held since 2018, and she served as Head of the Department from 2022 to 2025. She obtained a BA in Mathematics from Oberlin College in the USA, followed by an MSc in Biostatistics and a ScD in Biostatistics from Harvard University. Early in her career, Donnelly worked from 1995 to 2000 at the Wellcome Trust Centre for the Epidemiology of Infectious Disease at the University of Oxford under Professor Roy Anderson. Since 2002, she has been Professor of Statistical Epidemiology at Imperial College London. She is a Fellow of St Peter's College, Oxford, and has been appointed Oxford's Academic Champion for Policy Engagement.

Donnelly's research centers on the statistical and epidemiological dimensions of infectious disease transmission and control, encompassing real-time outbreak analysis and response, disease transmission dynamics, and science-policy interfaces. She has led data analyses for significant outbreaks, including the Ebola epidemics in West Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and contributed to COVID-19 epidemiological modeling as a member of the UK Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M), informing government policy. Her scholarly impact is evidenced by over 83,000 citations on Google Scholar in areas such as biostatistics, epidemiology, infectious diseases, and outbreaks. Key publications include the textbook 'Principles of Applied Statistics' co-authored with D.R. Cox (Cambridge University Press, 2011), 'Reduction in mobility and COVID-19 transmission' (Nature Communications, 2021), and 'Effectiveness of social distancing measures and lockdowns for reducing transmission of COVID-19 in non-healthcare, community-based settings' (Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, 2023). Donnelly has received prestigious honors, including Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2018 New Year Honours, Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS), Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci), and election as an inaugural Fellow of the Academy for Mathematical Sciences (FAcadMathSci) in 2026. Additional distinctions comprise an Honorary Doctor of Science from Oberlin College (2023) and a Visiting Miller Professorship at the University of California, Berkeley for spring 2026.