A statistician by training, Sarah has been involved in the design, implementation and analysis of epidemiological studies throughout her career. Initially working in cancer research in 1997, shemoved to the MRC Biostatistics Unit in Cambridge to work on the Cognitive Function and Ageing study (www.cfas.ac.uk) and is now deputy director and principal statistician on this suite of studies.

Over the years Sarah has developed a programme of research around developing and using state of the art statistical methods to the issues of understanding ageing.

Moving to Newcastle University in 2014, her research programme covers both the development of statistical methods (complex synthesis, multi-state models and Bayesian models) and the use of techniques for estimates of public health importance (prevalence, incidence, understanding risk and protective effects and healthy life expectancy) across a range of outcomes from dementia, cognition through to frailty.

Further research consists of understanding the biological underpinning of dementia with neuropathology and clinical research on dementia with Lewy Bodies, but also research designs for complex conditions such as dementia and autism.