Laia Becares

Laia Becares is a Lecturer in Social Statistics at the Cathie Marsh Institute for Social Research, University of Manchester. Her research focuses on ethnic inequalities in health, particularly examining pathways linking racialization and neighborhood effects to health disparities. She holds a PhD in Epidemiology and Public Health from University College London (UCL), an MPH from Boston University, and a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Boston.

Her work has explored ethnic density effects on health in the UK and New Zealand, and she led a 4-year project comparing child health inequalities across the UK, US, and New Zealand. Key areas of expertise include racism/discrimination, social determinants of health, and life course analysis.

Recent studies highlight racial discrimination's mental health impacts during the pandemic and methodological challenges in ethnicity data accuracy for public health. She contributed to the Evidence for Equality National Survey (EVENS), examining minority health during COVID-19.

Becares co-led the SENSE-Cog Project (2016-2020), addressing sensory impairment and mental wellbeing in elderly Europeans. She maintains roles on ESRC grant review panels and is a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society.