Karyn Morrissey is an associate professor whose research focuses on understanding the impact of socio-economic and environmental inequalities on health outcomes, using data both big and small.

An economist by background and having worked in a Department of Geography, her multi-disciplinary approach centres on the application of computational methodologies such as simulation models, econometric models and geo-computation models.

Karyn recently played an integral role in the Coral Communities project, developing participatory visual methods to engage with communities in Fundo Island, Zanzibar.

As part of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund project, she is also working with tech start-up SageTech Medical to evaluate how anaesthetic gases might be recycled, read more on that here.

Karyn is interested in the science-policy interface and has been a rapporteur for an OECD Workshop on the Future of Maritime Spatial Planning and Ocean Monitoring. She was an invited speaker at the Second Irish Maritime and Energy Resource Cluster Annual Conference in Cork in 2013, and an invited keynote speaker at the National Ocean Forum in Mauritius in 2012.

Karyn has also held a University of Liverpool knowledge exchange voucher with the Health and Safety Executive, is membership secretary of the British and Irish Regional Science Association, and an editorial board member of the Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics and Marine Policy.

Increasingly frustrated by existing research in population health outcomes, Karyn is interested in moving away from cross-sectional models – which focus on just one point in time – to a life course analysis based on longitudinal and cohort datasets – which follow people over time.

Karyn’s current funded research activities include:

• Newton-Omar award: Death and disability: the vulnerability of older people in Malaysia to urbanisation and climate change (Co-Investigator)
• EPSRC: Adaptation and Resilience of Coastal Energy Supply (ARCoES), with the University of Liverpool (Co-Investigator)
• NCRM: ‘Innovations in Small Area Estimation Methodologies’ with the University of Southampton.

Key recent publications include:

• Morrissey, K (2016). Is there a gendered role between individual and regional correlates of depression and anxiety in Ireland? The Professional Geographer: Journal of the Association of American Geographers. 68:1, 129-137, DOI: 10.1080/00330124.2015.1054020
• Morrissey, K, Williamson, P, Clarke, G, Daly, A and O’Donoghue, C (2015) Mental Illness in Ireland: Simulating its spatial prevalence and the role of access to services. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 42. pp. 338-353, doi:10.1068/b130054p
• Morrissey, K, O’Donoghue, C, Clarke, G, Li, J (2013) Using Simulated Data to examine the Determinants of Acute Hospital Demand at the Small Area Level. Geographical Analysis, 45 (1). pp. 49-76. DOI: 10.1111/gean.12000