Joanne Webster
{{Short description|British epidemiologist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2023}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Joanne P. Webster
| fields = Epidemiology
| workplaces = University of Oxford
Imperial College London
Royal Veterinary College
| alma_mater = University of Oxford
| thesis_title = Host-parasite interactions : epidemiology and behaviour in wild brown rats, Rattus norvegicus
| thesis_url = https://worldcat.org/en/title/52503640
| thesis_year = 1993
}}
Joanne P. Webster {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|FRSB|FMedSci}} is a British epidemiologist who is the Royal Veterinary College Chair in Parasitic Diseases, Director of the Centre for Emerging, Endemic and Exotic Diseases and Professor of Infectious Diseases at Imperial College London. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
Early life and education
Webster was an undergraduate student at the University of Oxford. She remained there for her doctoral research, where she studied the epidemiology of zoonotic disease. She focussed on Toxoplasma gondii and how it causes chronic disease in humans and animals. She spent a year at the NHS Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre. Webster eventually returned to Oxford for a series of postgraduate fellowships, including a Junior Research Fellowship and a Royal Society University Research Fellowship. During her fellowships, Webster expanded her research to the Global South.{{Cite web |title=Zoonotic parasites, an underappreciated area? – an interview with Joanne Webster |url=https://www.londonntd.org/news/zoonotic-parasites-an-underappreciated-area-%E2%80%93-an-interview-with-joanne-webster |access-date=6 September 2023 |website=LCNTDR |language=en}}
Research and career
In 2003, Webster joined the Imperial College London Faculty of Medicine, where she was made professor in 2006. Over a series of experiments Webster showed that toxoplasma infections can cause behavioural changes rodents, making them easier prey.{{Cite web |date=4 September 2012 |title=Professor Joanne Webster: The scientist who uncovered 'fatal feline |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/professor-joanne-webster-the-scientist-who-uncovered-fatal-feline-attraction-8102715.html |access-date=6 September 2023 |website=The Independent |language=en}}{{Cite journal |last1=Webster |first1=Joanne P. |last2=McConkey |first2=Glenn A. |date=1 June 2010 |title=Toxoplasma gondii-altered host behaviour: clues as to mechanism of action |journal=Folia Parasitologica |volume=57 |issue=2 |pages=95–104 |doi=10.14411/fp.2010.012|pmid=20608471 |doi-access=free }} It was predicted that in the brains of humans toxoplasma could cause considerable damage, including schizophrenia. At Imperial, she became co-director of the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI), which looked to eliminate parasitic disease.{{Cite journal |last1=FENWICK |first1=A. |last2=WEBSTER |first2=J. P. |last3=BOSQUE-OLIVA |first3=E. |last4=BLAIR |first4=L. |last5=FLEMING |first5=F. M. |last6=ZHANG |first6=Y. |last7=GARBA |first7=A. |last8=STOTHARD |first8=J. R. |last9=GABRIELLI |first9=A. F. |last10=CLEMENTS |first10=A. C. A. |last11=KABATEREINE |first11=N. B. |last12=TOURE |first12=S. |last13=DEMBELE |first13=R. |last14=NYANDINDI |first14=U. |last15=MWANSA |first15=J. |date=27 July 2009 |title=The Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI): rationale, development and implementation from 2002–2008 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0031182009990400 |journal=Parasitology |volume=136 |issue=13 |pages=1719–1730 |doi=10.1017/s0031182009990400 |pmid=19631008 |s2cid=26873613 |issn=0031-1820}} Over the ten years Webster was co-director, the SCI had provided over 300 million treatments to children.{{cn|date=September 2023}}
Webster was made associate director of the Imperial College London, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Royal Veterinary College London Centre for Neglected Tropical Disease Research, where she researched how to control and eliminate neglected tropical diseases.{{cn|date=September 2023}}
She was made chair in Parasitic Diseases at Imperial College London in 2014, where she studied human and animal tropical medicine and serves as Director of the RVC's Centre for Emerging, Endemic and Exotic Diseases.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}
Awards and honours
- 2005 CA Wright Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Parasitology{{Cite web |title=C.A. Wright Memorial Medal |url=http://bsp.eventflo.co.uk/C-A-Wright-Memorial-Medal |access-date=6 September 2023 |website=Home |language=en-GB}}
- 2007 National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research NC3Rs Prize{{Cite web |title=3Rs prize winners {{!}} NC3Rs |url=https://www.nc3rs.org.uk/3rs-prize-winners |access-date=6 September 2023 |website=www.nc3rs.org.uk |language=en}}
- 2013 Chalmers Memorial Medal to recognise Outstanding Contribution to Tropical Medicine{{Cite web |title=Chalmers Medal {{!}} RSTMH |url=https://www.rstmh.org/medals-awards/chalmers-medal |access-date=6 September 2023 |website=www.rstmh.org}}
- 2019 London International Development Centre Five Inspirational Women Shaping the Future of International Development{{Cite web |last=Admin |date=8 March 2019 |title=Five Inspirational Women Shaping the Future of International Development |url=https://lidc.ac.uk/five-inspirational-women-shaping-the-future-of-international-development/ |access-date=6 September 2023 |website=LIDC |language=en-GB}}
- 2019 Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology{{Cite web |title=Honours and Memberships – Joanne P. Webster |url=https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/joanne.webster/honours-and-memberships.html |access-date=6 September 2023 |website=www.imperial.ac.uk}}
- 2021 Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award{{Cite web |title=Professor Joanne P. Webster Presented with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award by Marquis Who's Who |url=https://www.24-7pressrelease.com/press-release/486395/professor-joanne-p-webster-presented-with-the-albert-nelson-marquis-lifetime-achievement-award-by-marquis-whos-who |access-date=6 September 2023 |website=24-7 Press Release Newswire |language=en}}
- 2022 Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences{{Cite web |title=RVC's Professor Joanne Webster awarded prestigious Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences – RVC News – News and Events – Royal Veterinary College, RVC |url=https://www.rvc.ac.uk/news-and-events/rvc-news/rvc-s-professor-joanne-webster-awarded-prestigious-fellowship-of-the-academy-of-medical-sciences |access-date=6 September 2023 |website=www.rvc.ac.uk}}
- 2023 Royal Society Leeuwenhoek Medal{{Cite web |title=The Royal Society announces this year's medal and award winners {{!}} Royal Society |url=https://royalsociety.org/news/2023/08/medals-and-awards-2023/ |access-date=6 September 2023 |website=royalsociety.org}}{{Cite web |title=The RVC's Professor Joanne Webster awarded Royal Society medal |url=https://www.rvc.ac.uk/research/programmes/livestock-production-and-health/news/the-rvc-s-professor-joanne-webster-awarded-royal-society-medal |access-date=6 September 2023 |website=www.rvc.ac.uk}}
Selected publications
{{refbegin}}
- {{Cite Q|Q34161540}}
- {{Cite Q|Q24670719}}
- {{Cite Q|Q35225745|doi-access=free}}
{{refend}}
References
{{reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Webster, Joanne}}
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford
Category:People associated with the Royal Veterinary College
Category:British epidemiologists
Category:21st-century British women scientists
Category:Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences (United Kingdom)