Ruth Travis

Ruth Travis is a molecular epidemiologist, whose main research interests are the hormonal, lifestyle and genetic determinants of common non-communicable diseases, particularly cancer. Her work involves combining the resources of established large cohort studies and international consortia with study designs that take advantage of new technology, both in terms of ‘omics’ and electronic data linkage. She leads several projects for the Endogenous Hormones, Nutritional Biomarkers and Prostate Cancer Collaborative Group, and co-ordinates the UK Biobank Prostate Cancer Epidemiology Consortium, as well as studies on metabolomics and other biomarkers in relation to prostate cancer in the Europe-wide EPIC study. Ruth is Principal Investigator of a Health and Safety Executive-funded study of the effects of shift work and circadian disruption on chronic disease within the Million Women Study and EPIC-Oxford cohorts. She represents EPIC as a member of several international cancer genetics consortia (BPC3, PRACTICAL and Ellipse). Alongside research, Ruth co-ordinates the Unit’s public outreach activities with the aim of promoting greater public engagement with population health research, particularly in terms of raising awareness of and stimulating debate about epidemiological methods and the critical interpretation of findings. She joined the Cancer Epidemiology Unit in 2001 after studying Biological Anthropology (University of Cambridge, 1997-2000) and Epidemiology (LSHTM, 2000-01), and obtained a DPhil in Cancer Epidemiology (University of Oxford) in 2005.