Rate My Professor Stephen Rushton

Professor Stephen Rushton serves as Professor of Biological Modelling in the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences at Newcastle University. His research centers on the development and application of advanced modelling techniques across biological, environmental, and medical systems. Primary foci include the epidemiology of food-borne pathogens, nosocomial and community-acquired infections, wildlife and livestock diseases, microbial community dynamics in complex environments, human exposure to environmental contaminants, discrete event modelling of human disease and health interventions, spatial dynamics of wildlife populations and disease transmission, and modelling health outcomes. Rushton contributes to key initiatives such as the Centre for Medical Toxicology, Stratified Medicine in Primary Biliary Cirrhosis, and the Environmental & Social Ecology of Human Infectious Diseases Initiative. He is a member of the Modelling, Evidence & Policy research group within the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences.

Rushton has an extensive publication record, with contributions to high-impact journals demonstrating his influence in ecology, epidemiology, and systems biology. His Google Scholar profile records over 20,000 citations, an h-index of 75, and an i10-index of 226. Among his most cited works are 'International incidence of childhood cancer, 2001–10: a population-based registry study' (The Lancet Oncology, 2017; 2,499 citations), 'New paradigms for modelling species distributions?' (Journal of Applied Ecology, 2004; 876 citations), 'Biodiversity in urban habitat patches' (Science of the Total Environment, 2006; 789 citations), 'Trophic control of mesopredators in terrestrial ecosystems: top-down or bottom-up?' (Ecology Letters, 2007; 412 citations), and 'Exploitation and habitat degradation as agents of change within coral reef fish communities' (Global Change Biology, 2008; 327 citations). Recent publications include 'Resurgence of scarlet fever in England, 2014-16: A population-based surveillance study' (The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 2018), 'Spatio-temporal models to determine association between Campylobacter cases and environment' (International Journal of Epidemiology, 2018), 'Radiomics from Routine CT and PET/CT Imaging in Laryngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma' (2026), and 'A systems approach framework for evaluating tree restoration interventions for social and ecological outcomes in rural tropical landscapes' (2023). In teaching, he leads modules such as BIO3003 Ecological Modelling, BIO3012 Current Issues in Conservation, BIO3036 Mammal Surveying Skills, BIO8054 Wildlife Disease and Epidemiology, and BIO8056 Modelling and Data Analysis.