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Dr Damian Farnell FHEA, MInstP, MIPEM

Dr Damian Farnell

FHEA, MInstP, MIPEM

Senior Lecturer in Medical Statistics

Email
farnelld@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone
+44 (0)29225 10618
Users
Available for postgraduate supervision

Overview

Overview

I am a senior lecturer of applied mathematics in dentistry at the School of Dentistry at Cardiff University, UK and module leader for the postgraduate course entitled "Research Methods" (DET031). I am also the head of the Dental Data Science Research Group.

Research Interests

  • Dental Data Science, including Deep Learning applied to medical / dental images, shapes, and signals.
  • Mathematical Biology.
  • Quantum many-body theory, especially “frustrated” magnetic systems.

Books

  • Quantum Magnetism. Lecture Notes in Physics Vol. 645, U. Schollwoeck, J. Richter, J. D.J.J. Farnell, R.F. Bishop (Eds.), (Springer Verlag, Heidelberg, 2004). (Hardcover ISBN: 3-540-21422-4. Softcover from 2010: ISBN: 978-3642059766)
  • An Introduction to Quantum Spin Systems. Lecture Notes in Physics Vol. 816. J.B. Parkinson and D.J.J. Farnell. (Springer Verlag, Heidelberg, 2010). (Softcover ISBN: 978-3-642-13289-6).
  • Teaching Biostatistics in Medicine and Allied Health Sciences. D.J.J. Farnell and R. Medeiros Mirra (Eds.), Book accepted for publication (subject to external review) by Springer Verlag (Publication date: early 2023).

Biography

Qualifications

  • PhD entitled “Integrable and Non-Integrable Quantum Arrays” (1994) University of Manchester Institute for Science and Technology (UMIST), UK.
  • BSc (1st class) in Mathematical Physics (1991) University of Manchester Institute for Science and Technology (UMIST), UK.

Honours and awards

Awards

Recent Grants (Since 2014 Only)

  • £475,700. Research Infrastructure Fund 2023-24, Cardiff University, application for a GPU cluster for high-performance, interactive artificial intelligence, machine learning, and visual computing. Lead Applicant: Prof. Frank Langbein. (Submitted: 3 February 2023).
  • £157,080.  EPSRC Strategic Equipment Bid for a DynaPro® Plate Reader III Dynamic & Static Light Scattering Instrument from Wyatt Technology Corporation. Lead Applicant: Dr. Elaine Fergusson. (Awarded in November 2022.)
  • £120K+ Combating Cancer with Data Science: Deep Learning of Histological Images for the Detection of Lymph Node Metastases (GW4 BioMed2 MRC Doctoral Training Partnership Studentship Grant. Lead Applicant: Damian J.J. Farnell. Co-Applicants: Adam Jones, Paul Rosin, David Marshall, and Amanda Pring (Bristol). (Awarded in August 2022; student to start on 1 October 2023.)
  • £1140. An Exploration of Functional Analysis of Dynamical Changes in Biological Shapes. Applicant: Damian J.J. Farnell. (Travel Grant from the London Mathematical Society. Awarded in June 2022.)
  • £9480. How Do People Read “Designed To Smile” Information Leaflets? An Exploratory Mixed-Methods Approach. Applicant: Damian J.J. Farnell. (Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM) as an Innovation Grant. Awarded in December 2021).
  • £15,000 Follow on study to: optical analysis of the colour of denture materials after staining. Applicants: Paul Milward, David Williams, and Damian J.J. Farnell. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) PLC (Jan. 2020).     
  • £1000 Multivariate statistical methods of simulating three-dimensional facial shape and facial growth. Successful application for travel funding (etc.) by Damian J.J. Farnell to the Cardiff University / KU Leuven Research Collaboration Fund (Dec. 2018).
  • £40529 Evaluation of the cleaning performance of denture cleansers utilising an in vitro stain model with a diverse range of regionally relevant stains Applicants: Paul Milward, David Williams, and Damian J.J. Farnell.  GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) PLC (Dec. 2018).           
  • £100,382 A Review of evidence to inform NICE Public Health Guidance for adult nursing and residential care homes on promoting oral health, preventing dental health problems and ensuring access to dental treatment– 31/05/2016. NICE. Principal applicants: A Weightman, & I.G. Chestnutt. Co-applicant: Damian J.J. Farnell et al. 01/09/2014.

Professional memberships

Academic positions

  • From 2014-present: Lecturer/Senior lecturer of Applied Mathematics in Dentistry, School of Dentistry, Cardiff University, UK.
  • 2011-2014: Senior Lecturer in Mathematics, University of South Wales, UK.
  • 2007-2011: Research Statistician, University of Manchester, UK.
  • 2003-2006: Lecturer in Ophthalmic Imaging, St. Paul’s Eye Unit + University of Liverpool, UK.
  • 1995-2003: Post-doctoral researcher (theoretical physics and medical research).
  • 1994-1995: Software engineer, Logica UK Ltd.

Speaking engagements

Since 2017 Only:

  • The Coupled Cluster Method Applied to Quantum Magnetism. Invited Oral Presentation by D.J.J. Farnell from Dr Ioannis Rousochatzakis, School of Physics, Loughborough University (Feb. 2023).
  • 3D Facial Surface Imaging in Dentistry and Beyond. Poster at Medical Image Understanding and Analysis (MIUA). July 2022.
  • An Overview of the Dental Data Science Research Group. Presentation by D.J.J. Farnell at the R&D day for the school of dentistry at Cardiff University. May 2022.
  • Orthodontics and 3D Imaging & Multivariate Statistical Models of Shape. Oral “vlunch” presentation (online via MS Teams) presentation by D.J.J. Farnell to the visual computing research group, school of computer science and informatics, Cardiff University. January 2021)
  • Analysis of the Blue Book Records. Oral presentation (online via Zoom) at Burwalls: For Teachers of Medical Statistics. (Coorganiser of this meeting.) July 2020.
  • Multilevel Models of Age-Related Changes in Facial Shape in Adolescents. Poster presentation by D.J.J. Farnell at the University Hospital Wales, R&D Conference. October 2019. Cardiff City Stadium.
  • Quantum Magnetism. Informal presentation given to members of the frustrated magnetism group, School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University. October 2019.
  • Multilevel Models of Age-Related Changes in Facial Shape in Adolescents. Poster presentation by D.J.J. Farnell at the British Society for Oral and Dental Research (BSODR) annual meeting. September 2019.
  • Multilevel Models of Age-Related Changes in Facial Shape in Adolescents. Oral presentation by D.J.J. Farnell at the Medical Image Understanding and Analysis (MIUA) July 2019.
  • The Use of Flipped Learning in Teaching a Postgraduate Research Methods Module: The Pros and Cons. Dr Damian Farnell. Burwalls: For Teachers of Medical Statistics. University of East Anglia (8th-10th, July 2019). Oral Presentation by D.J.J. Farnell.
  • Multilevel Principal Components Analysis (mPCA) of Facial Shape and Image Texture. Invited Oral Presentation by D.J.J. Farnell, KU Leuven, Belgium (Friday 3rd May 2019).
  • Flipped learning – experiencing the pros and cons for inverted learning. Dr DJJ Farnell and Mrs R Jones. Association of Science Educators in Dentistry (ASEID), Cardiff University (April 2019).
  • What’s in a Smile? Initial Results of Multilevel Principal Components Analysis of Facial Shape and Image Texture. Oral presentation by D.J.J. Farnell at the Medical Image Understanding and Analysis (MIUA) July 2018.
    What’s in a Smile? Multilevel Models of Facial Shape and Appearance. Dental School R&D day, Cardiff University (May 2017). Oral Presentation by D.J.J. Farnell.
  • Emergence of magnetic order in kagome antiferromagnets: The role of next-nearest-neighbor bonds Johannes Richter, Patrick Müller, Oliver Götze, Damian Farnell, Heinz-Jürgen Schmidt Strongly Correlated Electron Systems, SCES (July 2017). Poster presentation.
  • Monte Carlo Methods and Teaching Biostatistics. Burwalls: For Teachers of Medical Statistics. (July 2017). http://burwalls.org.uk/wp/?page_id=456. Oral Presentation by D.J.J. Farnell.
  • A systematic review of information literacy programs in higher education: Effects of face-to-face, online and blended formats on student skills and views. Alison L. Weightman, Delyth Morris, Heather Strange, Gillian Hallam, and Damian J.J. Farnell. One-day meeting at Cardiff University “To Tech or Not to Tech” (CUSEIP, July 2017). Lightning presentation and poster by D.J.J. Farnell.
  • Initial Results of Multilevel Principal Components Analysis of Facial Shape, DJJ Farnell, J Galloway, A Zhurov, S Richmond, P Perttiniemi, and V Katic. Poster presentation at the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board R&D Day by D.J.J. Farnell, 13th June 2017. ibid. Poster presentation by D.J.J. Farnell at the Medical Image Understanding and Analysis (MIUA) July 2017.
    Oral Health Improves, But Inequalities Remain for Children in Wales. Oral presentation by D.J.J. Farnell at the International Association for Dental Research, General Meeting (San Francisco, March 2017).

Committees and reviewing

Committees

  • Dental Research Ethics Committee (vice chair)
  • Dental Research Committee
  • College Data Strategy Committee
  • MSc Dental Subject Boards

Reviewing

  • Journal reviewer
  • Grant reviewer

External 

  • Data Guardian Healthwise Wales

Publications

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

Teaching

  • Module leader for module entitled "Research Methods" for postgraduate students in the School of Dentistry.
  • Academic tutor for second-year undergraduate dental students
  • MSc and PhD supervision

    Dental Data Science Research Group

    We leverage medical and dental data to improve patient outcomes and experiences in the UK. We will guide our work by promoting fairness, openness, honesty, and equality and ensuring quality and excellence in our research. See the Dental Data Science Research Group Webpage to know more.

    Activities of this research group are:

    • Dental Data Science, including Deep Learning applied to medical / dental images, shapes, and signals.
    • Mathematical Biology (e.g., simulating iris eye colour).
    • Teaching: Research Methods; Statistics; Critical Appraisal.
    • Statistical analysis & research design support for staff and students in the school of dentistry (and beyond) 

    3D Surface Imaging and Shape Modelling

    Research in the Orthodontics and 3D Imaging Research group (now part of the Dental Data Science Research Group) uses 3D facial imaging in order to "explain facial variation (biological make-up, anatomy, facial surface morphology and function) to inform a fully functioning biomechanical head model which is of value to improve healthcare interventions, improve wellbeing and quantify facial variation for face-wear, facial identification/forensics and computer interface industries."

    My research focusses on developing mathematical models of 3D facial shape in order to achive the aims above. I have developed a multilevel principal components analysis (mPCA) code that allows us to model different sources of variations at different levels of the model. 

    Automated Retinal Image Analysis (ARIA) dataset

    I was the principal researcher for the ARIA project at St. Paul's Eye Unit, RLUHT (2003-2006). This involved the recruitment of patients, retinal photography, and image analysis of resulting digital fundus photographs.

    • Please click here to access the freely available ARIA dataset, which is a directory of images collected by myself and members of staff of St Paul's Eye Unit and the University of Liverpool as part of this project.

    CCCM (crystallographic coupled cluster method)

    CCCM is a high-order CCM (coupled cluster method) code for lattice spin systems at T=0 by Damian J. J. Farnell (DF).

    • Historically, this code is based on "foundations" laid by Ray Bishop and John Parkinson (amongst others), and Chen Zeng's work in the 90's on the high-order code.
    • This code has been exploited and pushed forward by Damian Farnell and Sven Krüger primarily.
    • Joerg Schulenburg (JS) improved this code greatly and he has set up this webpage for distribution of the most recent code.

    COVID-19 bereavement 

    A joint study between Bristol and Cardiff Universities (and beyond), which aims to understand the grief experiences and support needs of people who have been bereaved either due to COVID-19 or another cause of death during the pandemic. This study explores peoples' experiences at the end of life of loved ones (family or close friend) and of grieving, as well as any support that people felt needed during bereavement (and what support they actually received).

    • Please follow this link for more information at the study website.
    • To access the first report from this study, please click on click here;
    • To see ITV News At Ten coverage, please click here
    • To see Sky News coverage, please click here.

    Supervision

    Past projects

    Current PhD supervision

    • PhD sudent appointed to start on a project entitled "Combating Cancer with Data Science: Deep Learning of Histological Images for the Detection of Lymph Node Metastases" (GW4 BioMed2 MRC Doctoral Training Partnership Studentship Grant. Lead  Supervisor: Damian J.J. Farnell. Co-Supervisors: Adam Jones, Paul Rosin, David Marshall, and Amanda Pring (Bristol).  

    Previous PhD supervision

    • Lead supervisor (PhD awarded in 2022; 50%) of Mr. Sam Evans. Project: description and interpretation of bruises sustained from physical abuse.
    • Co-supervisor (PhD awarded in 2021; 33%) of Dr. Jennifer Galloway. Project: 3D facial shape analysis.
    • Co-supervisor (PhD awarded in 2019; 50%) of Dr. Nor Azlida Binti Mohd Nor. Project: Impact of fluoride concentration in water supply on oral health. (Cardiff University.)
    • Co-supervisor (PhD awarded in 2006; 50%) of Dr. Kathryn Cracknell. Project: Latanoprost Induced Iris Darkening in Colour Images of the Eye for Glaucoma Patients. (University of Liverpool.)

    Areas of expertise

    External profiles