Rate My Professor Luigi Sedda

Dr Luigi Sedda serves as Senior Lecturer in Spatial Epidemiology at Lancaster Medical School within the Faculty of Health and Medicine at Lancaster University. He leads the Lancaster Ecology and Epidemiology Group, directing research efforts on spatio-temporal mapping of vector-borne diseases using biological frameworks, vector-wind-borne disease spread, and strategies for controlling emerging animal and human diseases. His work emphasizes infectious disease surveillance, particularly for malaria vectors such as Anopheles stephensi, and integrates advanced geostatistical models to predict disease dynamics and inform public health interventions. Sedda's career at Lancaster University progressed from Lecturer to Senior Lecturer in Spatial Epidemiology, where he has established himself as a key figure in spatial epidemiology applied to global health challenges.

Sedda is Principal Investigator on several prestigious grants, including the Wellcome Trust-funded Comprehensive assessment of the spread, biology and public health importance of Anopheles stephensi in Africa (2025–2028), BBSRC-supported Mechanisms of gut brain axis involvement in ectotherm thermotolerance (2025–2028), and projects on building malaria modellers in Africa and evaluating vector control efficacy. His influential publications include Evidence for a role of Anopheles stephensi in the spread of Plasmodium falciparum in Ethiopia (Nature Medicine, 2023), Designing spatial adaptive surveillance for the emerging malaria vector Anopheles stephensi in Eastern and Horn of Africa (medRxiv, 2026), Evaluation of the Entomological Adaptive Surveillance Framework for malaria vector monitoring: a comparative field trial with routine surveillance in Ghana and Mozambique (BMJ Public Health, 2026), Joint spatial modelling of malaria incidence and vector’s abundance (Journal of Applied Ecology, 2024), and Challenges in the surveillance and control of mosquito-borne diseases (2025). Sedda has received notable awards such as the North West Cancer Research CEO Award (2024), Prize for the best paper published in the Morecambe Bay Medical Journal (2022), NIHR CRN Greater Manchester’s Evening of Excellence (2021), and IPUMS research award (2016). His contributions extend to coordinating international workshops on vector-borne disease prevention and generating datasets for malaria transmission mapping, enhancing the field's capacity for evidence-based policy.