Plenary

Sally McClean received her first degree in Mathematics from Oxford University, and then obtained a MSc in Mathematical Statistics and Operational Research from Cardiff University, followed by a PhD on Markov and semi-Markov models at Ulster University. She is currently Professor of Mathematics at Ulster University. Her main research interests are in Stochastic Modelling and Optimisation, particularly for Healthcare Planning, and Computer Science, specifically Process Mining, Databases, Internet of Things, Sensor Technology and Telecommunications. She has been grant holder on over £13 million worth of funding, mainly from the EPSRC, Industry, the EU and charities. Sally is a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, Fellow of the Operational Research Society, Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, past President of the Irish Statistical Association and Member of the IEEE. She has published over six hundred research papers and was previously a recipient of Ulster University’s Senior Distinguished Research Fellowship.

Christine Currie is a Professor and Head of the Operational Research Group in Mathematical Sciences at the University of Southampton. She is a member and previous Director of Southampton’s Centre for Operational Research, Management Sciences and Information Systems (CORMSIS). She was Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Simulation from 2015 to 2024, Chair of the Operational Research Society’s Research Committee from 2022 to 2025, and elected Companion of Operational Research in 2024. Currently, she is a co-lead for the Knowledge Exchange Hub for the Mathematical Sciences, a national organisation that aims to promote, facilitate, and support knowledge exchange activities between Academia and Business, Industry and Government. Her research interests include simulation optimization, digital twins, and applications of simulation, particularly to health care and transportation. Her email address is christine.currie@soton.ac.uk and her homepage is https://www.southampton.ac.uk/people/5wzzxf/professor-christine-currie.

Dr Peter Cosgrove is a Consultant in Paediatric Emergency Medicine at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children and Honorary Lecturer at Queen's University Belfast. He trained in Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Boston Children's Hospital/Harvard Medical School and served as Medical Information Officer during Northern Ireland's enterprise-wide Epic EHR implementation. He is Co-Founder and CMO of Rafana, an intelligent healthcare access platform, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics