Tom Canning is a PhD student funded by the MRC-DTP. He is supervised by Professor Ioannis Bakolis and Professor Helen Fisher, spanning the Departments of Biostatistics & Health Informatics and Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry. His research explores outdoor air pollution exposure and associations with mental health and cognition across the life course.

Tom’s current research utilises the UK-based cohort studies to examine associations between air pollution exposure and outcomes, focusing on mental health, but including cognition and neuroimaging. He is also seeking to understand how this research may be applied practically to health systems.

Prior to his PhD, he worked in global mental health implementation, helping support service development and develop policy. He has a MSci in Neuroscience from University College London (2012-2016) and a MSc in Global Mental Health from King’s College London / London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (2016-2017).

Research interests

• Air pollution and mental health over the life course
• Environmental epidemiology
• Longitudinal data analysis
• Cohort studies