Andrew James Williams BMedSci MPH

Conferences/Symposiums

16th May 2013:

Weight Stigma Conference 2013

This was the first UK conference on weight stigma (http://stigmaconference.com/) and offered the opportunity for a wide variety of professionals and activists to discuss this controversial topic.  I presented a poster entitled 'National Child Measurement Programme, school effect and weight stigma'.
29th November 2012:

Beacons for Change: Exploring Community Transformation

An excellent two-day conference on community transformation with particular interest in Complexity Theory and Salutogenesis.  Case studies from the Beacon Project (C2: Connecting Communities), Ginsters, Eden Project and Violence Reduction in Scotland were discussed.
3rd May 2012:

Professional Development Policy Seminar for Health Scientists

This event, organised by the Centre for Science and Policy at the University of Cambridge, gave an excellent introduction to how scientists and policy makers are working together.  In particular how to communicate with politicians and policy makers was discussed.
24th April 2012:

Population Health: Methods and Challenges conference

This was the first UK conference on population health research methods organised by the MRC Population Health Sciences Research Network, UK Clinical Research Collaboration Public Health Research Centres of Excellence and the Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research and Policy.  This fascinating conference brought together academics from across the globe to discuss the challenges of researching populations and translating the research into action.  I was pleased to present some initial results from the multilevel modelling as a poster at this conference.
18th September 2011:

Pediatric Work Physiology Conference XXVII

I had been involved with this weeklong conference as part of the organising committee.  It provided an excellent opportunity to interact with research involved with all elements of paediatric work physiology and an great chance to help facilitate a conference.
8th September 2011:

RSPH Public Health International Conference: Health and Well-being

This excellent two day conference gave me the chance to network with other public health researchers and professionals.  In particular this conference considered the direction of public health in the 21st century.

Graduate School Skills Workshops

21st June 2012:

Using posters to communicate your research

This workshop discussed effective presentation of research upon posters: the rules for clear graphic presentation (Do's and Don'ts) and innovative ways of attractively presenting data.
27th June 2011:

Impact factor: writing for publication in scientific research

This course gave an introduction to the importance of publication within academic and provided some generic skills in writing for specific journals.
16th June 2011:

Take control: essential personal effectiveness in the PhD

This afternoon discussed the four major communication styles (passive, aggressive, passive-aggressive and assertive, giving the opportunity to recognise my own communication style.  Subsequently, some assertiveness training was provided before discussing effective negotiation.
9th May 2011:

Introduction to R

A one day course providing an introduction to the application of the R statistical software.
11th January 2011:

Ethical issues in social science research and the Data Protection Act

This afternoon course covered the key principles of the Data Protection Act and provided a discussion on the ethical consideration in undertaking some of the research undertaken at the University of Exeter.
20th December 2010:

Centre for Multilevel Modelling online course

This online course provides an introduction to multilevel modelling and using Stata statistical software to undertake multilevel modelling.
29th November 2010:

NVivo training course

A three day course provided by Dr Christina Silver from QDA Services.  The course provided an introduction to NVivo software and its use in qualitative analysis.
5th November 2010:

Introduction to Endnote

An afternoon course introducing the reference management software Endnote covering, how to use Endnote in your research and importing references from online databases.
30th September 2010:

Learning and Teaching in Higher Education Programme (LTHE) - Stage 1

A one day course on teaching in higher education covering intended learning outcomes and teaching methods.  This course provided basic skills in preparation for teaching at universities.

Training course

18th April 2012:

Practical Bayesian Data Analysis

This 3-day course at the University of Reading Statistical Services Centre provided training on the theory and practice of Bayesian Analysis using WinBUGS and Stata.
4th October 2011:

Multilevel modelling

This two day course from the University of Readings Statistical Services Centre provided a great introduction to multilevel modelling and the undertaking of multilevel modelling within MLwiN and Stata.

MRC Centenary Award funded internship

15th October 2012:

Professor Curtis, Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience, Durham University and the MOVE project

Thanks to funding from the MRC Centenary Awards I was able to spend four weeks in Durham with Professor Sarah Curtis working on the MOVE project.  This gave me insight into running a large school-based cluster randomised controlled trial which was related to obesity prevention.  I was also able to explore the concepts of resilience, social determinants of health, Salutogenesis and critical geography of obesity.