Xavier Didelot

Xavier Didelot is a Professor of Statistical Epidemiology and Genomics at the University of Warwick, holding dual affiliations with the School of Life Sciences and the Department of Statistics. He leads the Health Protection Research Unit in Genomics and Enabling Data, funded by the National Institute for Health Research (2020-2025), collaborating with the UK Health Security Agency and others to leverage genomic and epidemiological data for public health. Previously, he held roles at Imperial College London and the University of Oxford.

His research focuses on bacterial pathogen evolution and transmission, integrating genomic data with statistical methods. Key areas include phylogenetic analysis, recombination inference, and pathogen spread modeling. He develops open-source tools like TransPhylo for reconstructing transmission trees from genomic data.

Didelot’s work bridges statistical theory (Bayesian methods, Monte Carlo techniques) and biological applications (bacterial evolution, epidemiology). He contributes to global health initiatives, such as analyzing Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Clostridioides difficile outbreaks. His academic career includes postdoctoral research at Warwick and Oxford, and his software tools are widely used in microbial genomics.