Recent Updates

6th November 2025
Presented work at Maudsley Neurotechnology Meeting

10th July 2025
British Early Career Mathematicians' Colloquium talk

25th June 2025
British Applied Mathematics Colloquium talk

14th April 2025
Began part-time research associate position at University of Birmingham

17th January 2025 on LinkedIn

It’s been ten years since I did one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Aged fourteen, in the process of coming off epilepsy medication, and equipped with Lego and a terrible haircut, I decided to tell everyone I knew about my experience with epilepsy. I posted a five-minute video (!) on Facebook, which to me feels as embarrassing to watch back now as anything any of us put on the internet when we were fourteen. But it took a lot of courage to do, and everyone — so many people!! — was so kind, for which I’ll always be grateful.

I was diagnosed with a syndrome of epilepsy which these days is known as SeLECTS, which affects children and is generally “grown out” of during puberty. My seizures took place at night and I was conscious throughout (though if I had seizures I wasn’t conscious for, I wouldn’t necessarily know!). I had my first seizure aged nine and I was diagnosed and medicated aged eleven or twelve. Since coming off medication at fourteen, I have been seizure free.

Today, I am studying a PhD in applied mathematics which focuses on epilepsy. My lived experience doesn’t factor into my work often, but I wouldn’t be where I am without it, and I’m proud to be contributing to epilepsy research, and to have come so far.

- P

26th June 2024 in Frontiers in Network Physiology
Published "Treatment effects in epilepsy: a mathematical framework for understanding response over time" as joint first author alongside Elanor G. Harrington