September saw a sad farewell to the MRC Biostatistics Unit’s Programme Leader, Dr Linda Sharples.

Linda has been with the Unit for more than 20 years and will be missed.

Working jointly with Papworth Hospital her research focused on clinical epidemiology with applications to cardiothoracic transplantation. Major contributions to statistics from this work centred on the evaluation of surgical procedures in the absence of clinical trials and multistate models for describing the natural history of chronic diseases. More recently she has been involved in the design and promotion of randomised controlled trials in non-traditional areas (surgery, imaging, professional development) and in general evidence synthesis for policy development, particularly through health economic modelling.

Dr Linda Sharples will be joining Leeds Institute of Clinical Trials Research on late September as Professor of Statistics and Director of the Comprehensive Health Research Division.

To celebrate her achievements the MRC Biostatistics Unit threw a farewell ceilidh in her honour. She will certainly be missed by all her colleagues at BSU.

We wish her all the success in this new challenge.