Lander Bosch, BSc MSc MPhil PhD

PhD Student at the Department of Geography and Gonville & Caius College

Health Geography – The relation between childhood overweight and obesity in primary schoolchildren and the energy-expenditure inciting characteristics of their built public spaces

Biography

Qualifications

• MPhil in Geographical Research (Distinction), University of Cambridge, UK
• MSc in Sustainable Territorial Development (Summa cum laude), University of Padova, Italy; Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium; Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France; and UCDB Campo Grande, Brazil
• BSc in Geography (Magna cum laude), Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium

Career

• 2017 – 2021: PhD in Geography, University of Cambridge, UK
• 2016 – 2017: MPhil in Geographical Research, University of Cambridge, UK
• 2014 – 2016: Erasmus Mundus MSc in Sustainable Territorial Development, University of Padova, Italy; Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium; Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France and UCDB Campo Grande, Brazil
• 2011 – 2014: BSc in Geography, minor Physical Geography, Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium

Awards

• ESRC Doctoral Training Programme Studentship, 2017 – 2021
• Gonville Scholarship, Gonville & Caius College Cambridge, 2017 – 2020
• Erasmus Mundus Category B Scholarship, 2014 – 2016

Research

The focus of my PhD project lies on place as a pivotal driver of weight gain. More specifically, it studies the relation between childhood overweight and obesity (COO) and characteristics of the built environment that foster or hinder physical activity in London schoolchildren following a mixed-methods research paradigm.

The prevalence of COO has increased sharply since the 1980s. The UK is a high-burden country in terms of COO rates and its capital, London, is the global city with the highest share of children with obesity. My research attempts to disentangle the plethora of intertwined drivers of this epidemic from a health geographical perspective.

This project falls into my wider interest in the relation between place and the drivers of, and solutions to, the emergence and spread of health risks and disease. Prior research included the study of the relation between cystic fibrosis and tuberculosis in Brazilian Caucasians, and the potential of developing e-health in Kenya as a means to improve healthcare standards and access to healthcare services in the country’s rural areas.

Publications

Peer-reviewed publications

• Bosch, L.; Wells, J.C.K.; Lum, S. and Reid, A.M. (2020) ‘Associations of the objective built environment along the route to school with children’s modes of commuting: A multilevel modelling analysis (the SLIC study)’, PLOS One 15(4), e0231478, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0231478
• Bosch, L.; Wells, J.C.K.; Lum, S. and Reid, A.M. (2019) ‘Associations of extracurricular physical activity patterns and body composition in a multi-ethnic population of UK children (the Size and Lung Function in Children study): a multilevel modelling analysis’, BMC Public Health 19(573), doi: 10.1186/s12889-019-6883-1
• Bosch, L.; Bosch, B.; De Boeck, K.; Nawrot, T.; Meyts, I.; Vanneste, D.; Alexandre Le Bourlegat, C.; Croda, J. and Ribeiro Ferreira da Silva Filho, L.V. (2017) ‘Cystic fibrosis carriership and tuberculosis: hints toward an evolutionary selective advantage based on data from the Brazilian territory’, BMC Infectious Diseases 17:340, doi: 10.1186/s12879-017-2448-z.
• Bosch, L. (2015) ‘E-health in Kenya: Healthy Business?’, Agora Magazine voor Sociaalruimtelijke Vraagstukken 2015-3, pp.39-41.

Conference presentations and invited lectures

• ‘Technology, Diversity and Geographies of Wellbeing’, Invited lecture, Science and Technology Studies BSc, Tandon School of Engineering, New York University, USA; April 2020.
• ‘(Re)claiming the Urban Realm for and by Children: Empowering Children’s Voices through Go-along Interviewing’, Oral presentation and session convention on ‘Health and Sustainability in the Global North’ at the 8th Nordic Geographers’ Meeting; June 2019, Trondheim, Norway.
• ‘Cystic Fibrosis and Tuberculosis: hints toward an evolutionary selective advantage based on data from the Brazilian territory’, Oral presentation at the 15^th Annual European Cystic Fibrosis Society diagnostic network working group conference; February 2018, St Gallen, Switzerland.
• ‘CF carriership and tuberculosis: hints toward an evolutionary selective advantage based on data from the Brazilian territory’, Poster presented at the 16^th International Congress on Pediatric Pulmonology; June 2017, Lisbon, Portugal.

External activities

• Geographies of Health Reading Group, Department of Geography, Convenor (2017-…)
• Royal Geographical Society with IBG, Postgraduate Fellow