SSM ECRs featuring… Mairead Ryan!
Mairead Ryan is a PhD student at the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit and Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. She is currently based at the University of Newcastle in Australia.
 | Mairead Ryan University of Cambridge SSM member since: 2019 SSM participation: 2020 ASM, various ECR workshops 2019-2022, ECR subcommittee member 2019-2022 Topics of interest: Intervention evaluation, child health, physical activity |
What inspired you to pursue a career in public health?
I studied Psychology as an undergrad and absolutely loved it. In the third year of my degree, I signed up for a module in Health Psychology. That sparked my interest in preventive medicine and population-level interventions.
What excites you about working in research now?
Intervention evaluation research is brilliant so that still has me hooked. I like reading the methods sections of new trials and natural experiments. It is also now exciting to see infrastructure and incentives which promote Open Science practices in multiple fields. Good news for interdisciplinary research!
What area of social medicine/public health are you interested in?
My research focuses on physical activity and the school environment. I am interested in understanding why related policies and interventions fail to achieve their desired outcomes and what we can do better going forward to achieve and sustain behaviour change.
Can you tell us a bit about a project you’re working on now?
I am currently working with colleagues on an observational study to explore whether school uniforms are associated with gender differences in physical activity. It has been a really interesting study so far, learning about the use of uniforms in 100+ countries. In relation to this, I have also just joined researchers at the University of Newcastle, Australia, who are separately conducting a randomised controlled trial to assess the impact of a sports uniform on students’ cardio-respiratory fitness and physical activity.
What do you hope this will lead to?
We likely need low-agency interventions in all of the major settings in young people’s lives to effect much-needed change to their health behaviours, including physical activity. A growing percentage of the global child and adolescent population are enrolled in primary and secondary education. We also now know that many countries worldwide currently use school uniforms. Therefore, I hope the findings from these studies will be of use in informing the development of interventions in other countries.
Bonus question from SSM member Lizzy Winstone: What has been your career highlight so far?
Working with great people, 100%! It makes all the difference. I feel very lucky to be surrounded by enthusiastic and open-minded colleagues – they make work life fun and keep things interesting.
To keep up to date with Mairead’s work, you can follow @MRC_Epid and @CamEdFac, or get in touch via email.
SSM ECR features is a blog series that celebrates early career researchers. Each month we meet a member we admire, learn more about their work and find out what and who inspires them. To find out more visit socsocmed.org.uk/blog or email ecr.ssm@gmail.com.