Meaghan Kall is an epidemiologist at the

UK Health Security Agency The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is a government agency responsible for all health security in England, and some reserved public health protection matters across the whole of the United Kingdom. It is an executive agency of the Department ...

. In 2021 the journal ''

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

'' named her in ''Nature'''s 10, their global top ten list of people who helped shape science that year.

Early life and education

Kall grew up in a small, conservative town in

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. Kall completed a

bachelor of science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

in nutrition science at

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...

and master of health science at

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

. She is completing her doctorate at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

. Her doctoral thesis is ''National longitudinal survey of healthcare needs and risk behaviours of HIV positive people'' and is being supervised by Richard Gilson.

Career

She worked from 2009 to 2020 as a

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

Public Health England Public Health England (PHE) was an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care in England which began operating on 1 April 2013 to protect and improve health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities. Its formation came as a ...

tracking

HIV/AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

. In 2020 she was drafted into the UK government's

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

response. Her role was as a senior epidemiologist producing data within technical briefing documents and also communicating this information, including to the public. In 2021 she attracted a following on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

for her threads explaining epidemiological data. Her adoption of Twitter for public science communication was seen as particularly effective even though this was not part of her official employment. In January 2021, Kall was appointed lead epidemiologist in the COVID-19 Epidemiology cell at the UK Health Security Agency.

Recognition

Kall was included in a list of ten scientists who had had important roles in scientific developments in 2021 compiled by the

scientific journal In academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication designed to further the progress of science by disseminating new research findings to the scientific community. These journals serve as a platform for researchers, schola ...

''Nature''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kall, Meaghan Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Scientists from Michigan American epidemiologists American women epidemiologists Public Health England United Kingdom responses to the COVID-19 pandemic American science communicators