Research Team
Fearghal Behan
Assistant Professor
Fearghal joined the ADVANCE Study in January 2021 within the Musculoskeletal Mechanics Group in Imperial College London. His research focuses on musculoskeletal health. Fearghal is currently working on an interventional study that aims to improve bone mineral density through exercise in individuals who have suffered below knee amputations. This work is driven by the findings from the ADVANCE baseline results showing a reduction in bone mineral density in our amputated participants. In 2023 Fearghal moved to Trinity College Dublin.
Howard Burdett
Research Fellow
Howard joined the ADVANCE team in February 2021. His role as a research fellow is to investigate socioeconomic outcomes for ADVANCE participants including how these outcomes are related to injury, support services, and other factors. Howard has published on the long-term mental health and socioeconomic outcomes of veterans, as well as other areas of Armed Forces well-being and return from deployment. His experience is in mixed-methods research.
Dan Dyball
Post-doctoral Researcher
Dan joined the ADVANCE Study team in 2017 and achieved his PhD in Psychological Medicine, using the ADVANCE study cohort data, in 2023. His work on ADVANCE includes IMPACTS (Injury, Mental illness, Psychological thriving and cArdiovascular health amongst CombaT injured and uninjured UK military Servicemen) which investigates how mental health affects physical health. Dan continues to work as a post-doctoral researcher, investigating a wide range of outcomes linked to mental health and physical health.
Sarah Dixon-Smith
Research Associate
Sarah joined ADVANCE as a Research Associate in 2023. Her research focuses on the long-term outcomes of prehospital trauma interventions, including the impact of blood products, analgesia and casualty evacuation on long-term health. She is particularly interested in blast injury, chronic pain, and trauma-related premature ageing.
Anna Verey
Research Assistant
Anna joined the ADVANCE team in 2020 as a Research Assistant recruiting participants. Since 2021, Anna has worked on the ADVANCE-INVEST study, exploring the transition outcomes for those with battlefield injury and became a Research Associate in 2023. Anna investigates rates of sexual dysfunction as a result of battlefield injury in the cohort and has co-chaired the ADVANCE Participant Panel since 2021.
Fraje Watson
Research Associate
Fraje joined the ADVANCE team in 2022 as a Research Associate based at Imperial College London. Fraje’s research focuses on ADVANCE musculoskeletal outcomes and she analyses data from knee and hip x-rays, bone mineral density DEXA scan data and questionnaire data about bone and joint health. Fraje’s primary role is to understand what’s already known about a topic, and think of new research questions that ADVANCE data could help answer.
Laura Grover
PHD Student
Laura joined the ADVANCE team in 2022. She is completing a mixed-methods PhD exploring social support within the ADVANCE cohort. Her project examines the self-reported levels of social support and associations with mental health in those with and without a physical combat injury, as well as the lived experiences of social support in UK ex-military personnel who deployed to Afghanistan.
Jose M. Frias Bocanegra
PHD Student
Jose joined the ADVANCE study in October 2020 as a Musculoskeletal Sport Science and Health PhD student at Loughborough University. His research project, a ‘bolt-on’ to ADVANCE, aims to understand the relationships between functional outcomes concerning muscle size, strength and gait biomechanics in a cohort of UK veterans with above and below-knee lower limb amputations.
Angelos Manolias
PHD Student
Angelos joined the ADVANCE study in April 2022 as a PhD student at Imperial College London. His research project aims to discover metabolomic and proteomic biomarkers predictive of cardiometabolic risk in response to combat injuries in the ADVANCE cohort. Angelos studied Molecular Biology and Genetics at the Democritus University of Thrace and completed his Master's in Applied Genomics at Imperial College London.
Dr Rabeea Maqsood
Post-doctoral Researcher
Rabeea joined the ADVANCE study in September 2021 as a Medical Sciences and Public Health PhD student at Bournemouth University. Rabeeas is currently a post-doctoral researcher for the ADVANCE study at Imperial College London and continues to investigate the long-term impact of combat injury on heart rate variability as a marker of autonomic function and cardiovascular health within the ADVANCE cohort. Rabeea graduated from the University of Exeter Medical School with an M.Sc in Environment and Human Health.
Grace Williamson
PHD Student
Grace joined the ADVANCE team in 2025. She is completing a mixed-methods PhD exploring sleep health after sustaining serious physical combat injuries and the impact on mental and physical health in the ADVANCE cohort. Grace completed her bachelor’s degree in psychology and master’s in clinical forensic psychology at King’s College London.
Grace Blissitt
Research Assistant
Grace joined the ADVANCE team in November 2021 as a Research Assistant. Grace’s main role as part of the ADVANCE team is to conduct assessments for the ADVANCE TBI (traumatic brain injury) study. Grace graduated with an MSc in Neuroscience and Psychology from the University of Aberdeen in July 2021.