Professor John Terry PhD

PhD in Applied Mathematics 2000 University of Surrey

BSc (Hons) in Mathematics 1997 University of Reading

John is Interdisciplinary Professorial Fellow, a role he holds jointly between Mathematics, Computer Science and the Institute of Metabolism and Systems Research. This appointment reflects John’s passion for interdisciplinary research and for connecting people from different communities to work collaboratively on biomedical and clinical research challenges. In 2016 John introduced the concept of the “research incubator”: inspired by business incubators but repurposed to serve the needs of interdisciplinary research. Over 30 projects teams have been through the incubator thus far resulting in 2 patents applied for, 25 publications and counting, as well as leveraging over £10M in further funding.

John has substantially contributed to approaching 70 pieces of original research (in areas as diverse as attractor theory, cardiac arrhythmias, epilepsy, the mammalian stress response and nonlinear laser dynamics). John holds 1 patent with 2 pending, and alongside Wessel Woldman is co-founder of Neuronostics (a spinout established in 2018). John is a passionate science communicator and partnering with Paul Jepson and the Exeter Northcott Theatre co-wrote and co-directed Beyond My Control, a unique piece of theatre that brings to life what it is like to have epilepsy, the mathematics behind understanding brain networks and how this can be used to better diagnose epilepsy.

John is also motivated by developing leadership: both his own and in others. He is a graduate of the Leadership Foundation’s Senior Strategic Leadership Course (2016) and was one of just 14 individuals selected to graduate from the 6^th and final cohort of the Wellcome Trust’s Research Leadership Development Programme (2018/19). Partnering with Julian Shreeve, he has established a leadership programme for early career researchers built around developing productive communication skills, needs identification and screening, creating narratives, and interview performance. John has successfully mentored 15 early career researchers to secure independent research fellowships valued in excess of £7M since 2016.

John has a strong track-record of PhD supervision. His first student – Serafim Rodrigues – graduated from Loughborough University in 2006 and is now Ikerbasque Research Professor at the Basque Centre for Applied Mathematics. Since then a further 7 PhD students have successfully graduated under John’s supervision. All have established strong careers in academia or industry, including 3 with permanent academic roles.

John welcomes applications from prospective PhD candidates who seek to push the frontiers of knowledge through mathematical or data science approaches to understanding biological, biomedical or clinical questions.

I have a long track-record in multidisciplinary research with scientists in clinical and experimental neuroscience, where I am internationally renowned for systems modelling approaches in neuroscience and endocrinology, in particular applications to epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease and the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal axis. Current research includes:

• Characterising the evolution of epilepsies using neural modelling techniques, with the aim to create improved diagnosis techniques for clinicians and to better predict treatment outcomes.
• Developing tools for describing networks of interacting brain regions and characterising seizure initiation based upon network structure.
• Developing models for interpreting the effects of Deep Brain Stimulation with applications to Parkinson’s and Epilepsy.
• Exploring the interactions between neural dynamics and hormone secretions in the Hypothalmic-Pituituary-Adrenal axis; by understanding the mechanisms responsible for fluctuations observed in blood concentrations of steroids, more appropriate treatments for a number of clinical conditions may be developed.
• Developing models of the phenomenology of electrical data recording clinically during radiofrequency ablation therapy for the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias.

Current activities

• Epilepsy Research UK Scientific Advisory Committee (2018-DATE)
• UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship Panel Committee (2018-DATE)
• Neuronostics Co-Founder and Director (2018-DATE)
• MRC Non-Clinical Training and Career Development Panel (2017-DATE)
• International League Against Epilepsy Task Force on Network Basis of Disease (2017-DATE)
• EPSRC Peer-Review College (2011-DATE)

Previous activities

MRC Skills Development Panel (2014-2017)