Steve Bennett

Abstract

Internationally respected statistician and epidemiologist of tropical diseases, notably malaria and tuberculosis, at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK. Born in Liverpool, UK, on Nov 15, 1950; died after a series of strokes on March 27, 2003.Last month, WHO and the United Nations Children's Fund issued an inaugural joint report into the continuing tragedy of malaria's impact on Africa. It was not an encouraging picture. Every day, 3000 children in the continent die from the plasmodium parasite, it found. Some 300 million people are infected annually, a million of whom die. One glimmer of hope in the report was that that bed nets treated with insecticide could potentially save hundreds of thousands of these lives by preventing new infections. Potent weapons for fighting malaria are at hand, even if the resources are not. The addition of this weapon to the world's medical arsenal was due in no small part to the work of Steve Bennett, a brilliant statistician who died, aged 52 years, after suffering a series of strokes. Bennett, who spent 16 years working at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), London, UK, brought his statistical expertise to the field of epidemiology, making some striking contributions to the understanding and control of tropical disease. WHO's strategy against malaria is greatly in his debt.Bennett's most important studies, undertaken in collaboration with the Medical Research Council's laboratories in The Gambia, were among the first to show just how useful bed nets, when properly used, could be against the disease. Bennett's statistics underpinned a trial that showed that the nets, impregnated with insecticide and distributed nationwide through a government programme, could reduce childhood mortality from the disease by 20%. It is now established that the nets reduce infection rates by half: the challenge is how to ensure that they reach populations in so poor a continent. Bennett also contributed to Africa's first trial of a malaria vaccine for infants, and to research investigating the relation between immune response genes and the severity of the disease.A lifelong socialist, Bennett was an early member of Radical Statistics, a group devoted to using their statistical expertise to expose inequalities. In Africa, he translated this conviction into establishing new methods of sampling rural communities and designing medical trials for the particular conditions that prevail in the developing world. In recent years he worked on genetic epidemiology, devising strategies for examining the links between genetic and environmental risk factors and malaria and tuberculosis. He was close to publishing a text on this emerging field at the time of his death.Bennett was born in Liverpool in 1950, the son of Jacob and Judith Bennett. He took a first in mathematics from Wadham College, Oxford University, in 1971, and worked for the Post Office, as a schoolteacher, and for a software company before entering academic statistics.In 1979, he started doctoral studies in statistics at the University of Reading, working for 3 years in the department of applied statistics before his move to the LSHTM. As well as doing his most important work here, he supervised scores of postgraduate students and taught on courses both in London and in the developing world, in countries such as Indonesia, Zambia, Uzbekistan, and Guinea. He was the course organiser of LSHTM's distance learning MSc in Epidemiology Principles and Practice, which has more than 300 students worldwide, and an elected member of the School's Board of Management. Shortly before his death, he was appointed Professor of Epidemiology and Medical Statistics. He was also co-leader of the school's Medical Research Council Tropical Epidemiology Group, and was an adviser to WHO and the United Nations Children's Fund.Colleagues remember Bennett as a brilliant teacher and researcher, who contributed personally, as well as professionally, to the LSHTM. Despite, or perhaps because of, his command of the discipline, he worked continually to simplify statistical methods, so that they could be understood and used by researchers with more limited mathematical knowledge. He was inspired not only by a love of his subject, but by a burning desire to improve the lives of millions in the developing world who live under the shadow of infectious disease. “One of his most important achievements was to demonstrate how rigorous scientific studies can be carried out even in the most resource-poor settings in order to produce the sound evidence needed to improve health worldwide”, said Bennett's colleague Richard Hayes, Professor of Epidemiology and International Health at LSHTM. Bennett is survived by his wife, Debbie, and his daughters, Hannah and Katie. Internationally respected statistician and epidemiologist of tropical diseases, notably malaria and tuberculosis, at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK. Born in Liverpool, UK, on Nov 15, 1950; died after a series of strokes on March 27, 2003. Last month, WHO and the United Nations Children's Fund issued an inaugural joint report into the continuing tragedy of malaria's impact on Africa. It was not an encouraging picture. Every day, 3000 children in the continent die from the plasmodium parasite, it found. Some 300 million people are infected annually, a million of whom die. One glimmer of hope in the report was that that bed nets treated with insecticide could potentially save hundreds of thousands of these lives by preventing new infections. Potent weapons for fighting malaria are at hand, even if the resources are not. The addition of this weapon to the world's medical arsenal was due in no small part to the work of Steve Bennett, a brilliant statistician who died, aged 52 years, after suffering a series of strokes. Bennett, who spent 16 years working at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), London, UK, brought his statistical expertise to the field of epidemiology, making some striking contributions to the understanding and control of tropical disease. WHO's strategy against malaria is greatly in his debt. Bennett's most important studies, undertaken in collaboration with the Medical Research Council's laboratories in The Gambia, were among the first to show just how useful bed nets, when properly used, could be against the disease. Bennett's statistics underpinned a trial that showed that the nets, impregnated with insecticide and distributed nationwide through a government programme, could reduce childhood mortality from the disease by 20%. It is now established that the nets reduce infection rates by half: the challenge is how to ensure that they reach populations in so poor a continent. Bennett also contributed to Africa's first trial of a malaria vaccine for infants, and to research investigating the relation between immune response genes and the severity of the disease. A lifelong socialist, Bennett was an early member of Radical Statistics, a group devoted to using their statistical expertise to expose inequalities. In Africa, he translated this conviction into establishing new methods of sampling rural communities and designing medical trials for the particular conditions that prevail in the developing world. In recent years he worked on genetic epidemiology, devising strategies for examining the links between genetic and environmental risk factors and malaria and tuberculosis. He was close to publishing a text on this emerging field at the time of his death. Bennett was born in Liverpool in 1950, the son of Jacob and Judith Bennett. He took a first in mathematics from Wadham College, Oxford University, in 1971, and worked for the Post Office, as a schoolteacher, and for a software company before entering academic statistics. In 1979, he started doctoral studies in statistics at the University of Reading, working for 3 years in the department of applied statistics before his move to the LSHTM. As well as doing his most important work here, he supervised scores of postgraduate students and taught on courses both in London and in the developing world, in countries such as Indonesia, Zambia, Uzbekistan, and Guinea. He was the course organiser of LSHTM's distance learning MSc in Epidemiology Principles and Practice, which has more than 300 students worldwide, and an elected member of the School's Board of Management. Shortly before his death, he was appointed Professor of Epidemiology and Medical Statistics. He was also co-leader of the school's Medical Research Council Tropical Epidemiology Group, and was an adviser to WHO and the United Nations Children's Fund. Colleagues remember Bennett as a brilliant teacher and researcher, who contributed personally, as well as professionally, to the LSHTM. Despite, or perhaps because of, his command of the discipline, he worked continually to simplify statistical methods, so that they could be understood and used by researchers with more limited mathematical knowledge. He was inspired not only by a love of his subject, but by a burning desire to improve the lives of millions in the developing world who live under the shadow of infectious disease. “One of his most important achievements was to demonstrate how rigorous scientific studies can be carried out even in the most resource-poor settings in order to produce the sound evidence needed to improve health worldwide”, said Bennett's colleague Richard Hayes, Professor of Epidemiology and International Health at LSHTM. Bennett is survived by his wife, Debbie, and his daughters, Hannah and Katie.