Charilaos Zisou

Supervisors: Professor Aiden Doherty and Dr Stefan van Duijvenboden

I am an Electrical and Computer Engineer from Greece. While studying for my undergraduate degree, I developed an interest in health data science, which introduced me to related areas of population health research. After a few of years of working as a research assistant, I decided to pursue the MSc in Global Health Science and Epidemiology at the Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford. With my successful application for the DPhil in Population Health within the same department, I am eagerly preparing to begin my doctoral studies at Balliol College, commencing in Michaelmas 2023.

I am immensely grateful for the scholarships I have received, which will fund my postgraduate studies. I have been fortunate enough to secure funding from the Oxford British Heart Foundation Centre for Research Excellence, the Nuffield Department of Population Health, and I have also been awarded a titular Clarendon Fund scholarship.

My passion lies in exploring how modern digital devices can be integrated into large-scale epidemiological studies to learn more about the causes and consequences of non-communicable diseases. For my DPhil project, I will combine my computational background with my postgraduate training in epidemiology and focus on capturing circadian rhythms at a population level using wearable accelerometer data. I will investigate the disruption of these rhythms and explore its potential association with future functional and structural cardiac abnormalities, which may play a key role in the development of cardiovascular disease.

Undergraduate degree and training: Integrated MEng in Electrical and Computer Engineering (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) followed by an MSc in Global Health Science and Epidemiology (University of Oxford).

Studentship dates: 2023 - 2026