Dr. Rawson is an epidemiologist and mathematical modeller whose work interests span the spectrum of public health research. During the COVID-19 pandemic he worked in real-time disease modelling, feeding projections into government decision making. His retrospective work on the pandemic assessed the public health impact of key policy decisions such as increasing the delay between vaccination doses, and the decision to delay step 4 re-opening in England; both interventions which his work showed to have prevented thousands of excess hospitalisations. He has also worked extensively across multiple zoonotic pathogens, most recently producing the first epidemiological impact assessments of the spillover of H5N1 avian influenza into dairy cows, and the effectiveness of control measures introduced.

His work now predominantly focusses on the interplay between demography and infectious disease dynamics - growing our understanding of how different populations experience disease outbreaks differently, and how the changing age distributions around the world will impact healthcare demand in future. Methodologically, he is experienced in stochastic modelling techniques, hierarchical Bayesian frameworks, and quantitative risk assessment methods. Thom is actively engaged with the wider societal outreach of scientific work, translating research materials into interactive activities and audio and video content for general audiences.