Dr Rebecca Mancy

(she/her)

Publication

• Date
• Type

Research

My current work as an epidemiologist can be categorised into three main themes: heterogeneities in infectious disease transmission, One Health, and infectious diseases and health inequalities over the long term.

1. Symptom propagation and heterogeneities in pathogen transmission. I am interested in heterogeneities in pathogen transmission and their impact on infectious disease dynamics. For example, I am currently working with Ed Hill at the University of Liverpool and Matt Keeling and Phoebe Asplin at the University of Warwick, on understanding the epidemiological implications of ‘symptom propagation’, a term we introduced to capture the idea that symptom sets tend to propagate alongside pathogen transmission as a result of transmission mechanisms (see publications). My earlier work with Katie Hampson and published in Science demonstrated how canine rabies persists at low prevalence, partially due to heterogeneities in transmission. I am also interested in correlations between incubation and infectious periods, and similar effects.
2. The impact of human and livestock health on inequality. In collaboration with colleagues in social sciences (mostly economics), I have been working on projects that aim to understand the root causes of inequalities. We have been working with the NGO Friends of Lake Turkana and Turkana pastoralist communities in Northern Kenya to analyse survey data to understand the importance of livestock and human health risk for inequalities. This work is in collaboration with Konstantinos Angelopoulos(University of Glasgow), Spyridon Lazarakis (Lancaster University) and Dorice Agol (LSE). With Konstantinos and two former PhD students (Gill Stewart and Siqi Qiao), we are also working with archive data from Glasgow and Nancy (France), in collaboration with colleagues at Glasgow City Archives and the Archives municipales de Nancy, to understand the drivers of mortality inequalities and the impacts of mortality for inequality in the period prior to the welfare state.
3. Infectious diseases and health inequalities over the long term. I like using historical data to understand fundamental questions relating to infectious disease dynamics and ecology that are still relevant today. For example, the epidemiological transition is the greatest public health success that the world has ever known, so it is important to understand how it worked. I am currently studying differences in the timing of the epidemiological transition between small areas of cities with Konstantinos Angelopoulos, and Gillian Stewart (University of Glasgow) and Siqi Qiao (Zhejiang University); we are also working in collaboration with Tim Riswick (Radboud University) and colleagues as part of the EU-funded Great Leap project on this work. With Thomas Crellen at NUS Singapore, I am working on similar ideas using data from colonial records that allow us to compare diseases and their dynamics across large parts of the globe, in some instances, as far back as 1830 (and thus largely prior to modern medicine). I have published work on the dynamics of influenza following historical pandemics since 1838, revealing a pattern of recurrent outbreaks for several decades after the main waves. I have worked on the role of prior experience of local outbreaks of disease on vaccination refusal, using information on events relating to smallpox that created a ‘natural experiment’ in Glasgow, UK.  This work uses historical archive data and computational, mathematical and statistical modelling, alongside historical analysis.

Biography

I have an undergraduate degree in Mathematics (with intercalated year spent at the Université de Genève) from the University of Warwick in 2000. I then worked as a software engineer in Geneva for a couple of years, before undertaking a first PhD in Education (graduated 2007) and a second PhD in Computing Science, focused on modelling ecological and epidemiological dynamics. I have worked at the University of Glasgow since 2005 in positions in the School of Education, School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine and School of Health and Wellbeing. While maintaining a part-time role at the University of Glasgow, I joined WAVU at Cardiff University in September 2025.

Education and qualifications

• 2010-2015 PhD Computing Science, University of Glasgow
• 2006-2007 Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP), University of Glasgow
• 2002-2007 PhD Educational Studies, University of Glasgow
• 1996-2000 BSc Mathematics (with intercalated year), University of Warwick

Professional memberships

• Affiliate, Joint UNIversities Pandemic and Epidemiological Research (JUNIPER)
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (now Advance HE)

Academic positions

• September 2025 – Present: Lecturer in Infectious Disease Epidemiology / Behavioural Science, Wales Applied Virology Unit (WAVU), Cardiff University.
• August 2013 – Present: Senior Lecturer, School of Education, University of Glasgow.
• November 2017 – June 2024: Leckie Research Fellow, Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, School of Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow.
• October 2014 – September 2017: Research Fellow, Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, University of Glasgow.
• November 2005 – August 2013: Lecturer, School of Education, University of Glasgow.

Committees and reviewing

• Journals: e.g. Journal of the Royal Society: Interface, PLOS Computational Biology, PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Journal of Animal Ecology, Social Science & Medicine, Environment & Planning C: Politics and Space, Developmental Psychology, Science and Education, European Education, Frontiers in Veterinary Science, Frontiers in Public Health.
• Research funders: European Research Council; Economic and Social Research Council; Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology; Ministry of Education, Singapore; Carnegie Trust.

Supervisions

I am interested in supervising research students in the areas of infectious disease epidemiology and disease ecology. I have a lot of interdisciplinary experience (including PhD supervision) and am very open to interdisciplinary projects. I mostly use quantitative methods in my research, including mathematical and computational modelling, as well as more data-driven approaches. Please see the Research tab for potential areas of interest but do contact me if you are unsure if your area of interest overlaps with mine.

I have supervised 15 PhD students to completion, with three ongoing (as of October 2025).

Winner of University of Glasgow Student Teaching Award “Best Research Supervisor” in 2013.

Past projects

Examples of previous PGR projects include: Computational modelling in public health, disease persistence in host-vector systems focusing on dengue, diversity in causes of mortality, the epidemiological transition and health inequalities in the UK and France 1850-1950, modelling symptom propagation in respiratory pathogens, the dynamics of height gain of children during the 20th century in the UK.

Engagement

I have ongoing leadership of knowledge exchange and impact activities in Turkana, Kenya. Based on our modelling of risks to human and livestock risk, I co-led development of materials including policy briefs and booklet ‘Voices of the Turkana People’ on risk exposure (risks to human and livestock health) and the role of traditional cultural practices in their mitigation; co-development of community and educational activities (e.g. debates and reading groups), (reaching ~15,000 students). I co-led two evaluation exercises that provide evidence of impact that has improved understanding, learning and participation (of students and communities) and helped practitioners (teachers and community leaders) improve services.

Agol, D., Angelopoulos, K., Lazarakis, S., *Mancy, R. and Papyrakis, E. (2020) Voices of the Turkana People. Other. Friends of Lake Turkana. https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/223900/ (in English and Kiturkana)

I also made a key contribution to research that led to the adoption by GAVI of rabies post-exposure prophylaxis in eligible low-income countries, and underpinned Katie Hampson and Sarah Cleaveland’s REF 2021 Impact Case, ‘Driving change and investment in international policy on rabies post-exposure prophylaxis’ submitted at the University of Glasgow.

I have participated in the Glasgow Science Festival, ESRC Festival of Social Sciences, and similar events.