Cayla Jans Van Rensburg
CDT Student
Cayla completed her undergraduate degree in Industrial Engineering at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, where an internship at a medical consulting firm sparked her interest in applying engineering to healthcare. She went on to complete an MPhil in Population Health Sciences at the University of Cambridge, specialising in infectious disease modelling. Her dissertation, supervised by Prof Henrik Salje, used geostatistical methods to explore whether serological surveillance could be used to estimate the force of infection for Hepatitis E in Bangladesh. Her research interests include statistical epidemiology, computational modelling, and data-driven approaches to infectious disease research, which she hopes to continue developing through her DPhil.
Outside of academia, Cayla is a keen musician. She plays the cello and piano in ensembles and orchestras, sings in a choir, and enjoys attending concerts and theatre performances. She is also an avid reader and hopes to someday travel the world.