Our Team

IN THIS SECTION

News About Our Researchers

Team Outings

Our research group operates out of Saint Paul’s Hospital in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia. The diversity of skill sets and experiences allow us to explore issues challenging people living with HIV through multiple avenues. Within our group, we have individuals skilled in epidemiological methods, statistics, and mathematics.

Meet our passionate research team below.

 

 

Principal Investigator

 

Dr. Viviane  Lima, PhD MSc

Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Medicine

Scientist and Senior Methodologist at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS

About Dr. Viviane Dias Lima: Viviane is a Research Scientist and the Senior Statistician at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS. In 2016, she was promoted to Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia (UBC). The focus of her research career has been on the epidemiology and control of HIV. Based on her extensive training in statistics, epidemiology, and mathematical modelling, she has developed innovative models of disease progression and transmission to understand the potential impact of behavioural, biomedical, and programmatic interventions on the HIV epidemic. Recently, she has focused her research on the impact of aging and determinants of health on the population living with HIV.

Interesting Fact: Viviane loves reading, kayaking, walking her dog Zoe and riding her motorcycle.

 

Research Team

 

Jielin Zhu, PhD MSc

Mathematical Modeler

About Jielin Zhu: Jielin is a Mathematical Modeler in the EMBARC research group at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS. She has an MSc degree in the application of modelling and a Doctoral degree in mathematics. Her research interests include design, construction, and validation of mathematical models to simulate the epidemics of infectious diseases, such as HIV and HCV, and evaluate the effectiveness of possible interventions. Her model, which estimated the impact of antiretroviral therapy initiation with integrase inhibitors on HIV transmission risk, was published on the LANCET EClinicalMedicine. Her work on modelling the HCV epidemics in BC and evaluating effective interventions to achieve WHO targets of HCV elimination was presented in the 23rd International Workshop on HIV and Hepatitis Observational Databases.

 

 

 

Clara (Lu) Wang, MSc

Statistician

About Clara Wang: Clara is a member of the EMBARC team and a statistician at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS. She holds an MSc degree in Statistics from Simon Fraser University and an MSc degree in Mathematics from the Memorial University of Newfoundland. She has been providing statistical support for a variety of cohort studies and research on administrative data. Her research interests include statistical inference, modern statistical modelling, biostatistics and research in epidemiology.

Interesting Fact: Clara loves reading, writing and swimming.

 

 

 

Hasan Nathani, MSc

Statistician

About Hasan Nathani: Hasan is a member of the EMBARC team and a statistician at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS. He holds an MSc and BSc degree in Statistics from Simon Fraser University. Before joining the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, Hasan had worked as a statistician at the BC Centre for Heart Lung Innovation and Fraser Health Authority. His research interests include multilevel modeling, sports analytics, biostatistics and research in epidemiology.

Interesting Fact: Hasan loves cooking, playing sports, and travelling.

 
 

Grace Yin, MSc

Statistician

About Grace Yin: Grace is a member of the EMBARC team and a statistician at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS. She has an MSc degree in Statistics from the University of British Columbia and a Bachelor degree in Honours Statistics from the same institution. Her research interests include analyzing longitudinal data, causal inference, and their application in biological research in epidemiology.

Interesting Fact: Grace loves digital painting, writing song lyrics and playing with her ragdoll.

 
 

 

Lalani Munasinghe, MSc

Epidemiologist

About Lalani Munasinghe: Lalani Munasinghe is an Epidemiologist in the EMBARC research group at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS. She has completed MSc in Public Health (Epidemiology) from the University of Alberta, and also specialized in Nutrition, Food Science and Biochemistry. During the past six years of her career, she actively contributed to Epidemiological research on various disciplines, including vitamin D supplementation, healthy lifestyle, added and free sugar intake, COVID-19, and diabetes-related complications. After joining EMBARC, her research has been focused on the population living with HIV/AIDS.

Interesting Fact: She loves music, traveling, spending time with her wonderful family and friends, and chatting with her mom.

 

 

Bronhilda Takeh, MD, MPH

Epidemiologist

About Bronhilda Takeh: Bronhilda graduated from the UBC MPH program. She was a Graduate Research Assistant at the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and now joins the EMBARC team as an epidemiologist. Prior to pursuing her master’s degree, she worked as a physician in Cameroon, where she supported the delivery of HIV management strategies. Her current research interest focuses on chronic diseases among the aging population of people living with HIV/AIDS.

Interesting Fact: Bronhilda enjoys singing, cooking, and she also has a passion for adventure.

 

 

 

Graduate Research Assistants

Our students

As key members of our research team, graduate students working under Dr. Lima can build their analytical and research skills through hands-on experience as a Graduate Research Assistant at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS. Additional opportunities to participate in our research are made to medical students through clinical rotations and elective courses.

To learn more about our current students and past alumni, please explore our Education and Training