Could you tell us a bit more about your background?

After a bachelor’s degree in economics with a specialization in applied mathematics, I obtained a master’s degree in development studies with a specialization in development economics from Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne. So, it was not really health-orientated. A fun fact: my first research experience was at the French Ministry of Defence, working on post-COVID stimulus packages in the French aerospace industry.

While I was looking for an internship at the end of my master’s degree, I was watching a documentary about mRNA vaccines and I had an epiphany linking my love for medicine and science with economics. I then started searching for an internship in public health or health economics, and ended up in Marseille where I wrote my master’s thesis and applied for a PhD grant. But not any kind of grant, it’s a PhD grant for multidisciplinary projects, in both economics and public health. I’m in my third year of my PhD and it feels like I’ve found my path, even if it was not exactly straightforward.

You’re currently working on your PhD, which focuses on understanding prevention and screening behaviours. Could you tell us about your PhD?

Even though my PhD is in economics, I’m working at the intersection of economics and public health, and my PhD grant is dedicated to multidisciplinary projects. I’m part of an economics lab (Aix-Marseille School of Economics, Aix-Marseille University) and a more public-health focused lab (Economic and Social Sciences of Health & Medical Information Processing, Aix-Marseille University).

My work focuses on individual decision-making regarding the adoption of preventive measures. I’m studying both individual (including preferences) and structural (the supply side) factors that may influence the willingness to comply with preventive behaviours for both infectious (i.e. COVID-19, STDs) and non-infectious diseases i.e. managing the risk of complications among patients with chronic diseases. 

What are you working on at LSHTM?

Here, I’m working on one of my PhD chapters, a discrete choice experiment aiming at understanding pregnant women and healthcare workers' preferences in managing the risk of vertical transmission of STDs in Burkina Faso and the Gambia. I have also had the opportunity to work on the UPTAKE project, which aimed at identifying young women and female sex workers' preventive behaviours and preferences for HIV prevention in Kenya and Uganda.

It was important for me to get involved in an LSHTM research project, and have the chance to explore new methodologies and see how researchers work here.

How does working in research in the UK and LSHTM compare to your experience in France?

In France, I work in an economics department, covering a wide range of topics from macroeconomic theory to applied microeconomics. And that can include econometric theory, environmental, experimental, health economics, and much more. At LSHTM, it’s the other way around: the GHECO is a health economics department in a public health institution.

Moreover, as I am based at Tavistock place, the fact that we all share the same open space leads to many discussions while eating or having a coffee. Personally, I’ve found it so enriching to talk with so many researchers from a variety of health-related fields, as it not only enables me discover other projects, techniques, and methodologies but also promotes mutually beneficial help for everyone within fields we are less familiar with.  

What impact do you hope your research will have in the future?  

Like my colleagues in public health and health economics, I’m motivated by a desire to improve people's health. My work aims to understand individual decision processes leading to adopt preventive behaviours, such as individual preferences or barriers on the supply side. I hope my work will contribute to the corpus of studies trying to understand how people behave and what policymakers can do to improve individual health. Taken all together, I aspire to be one of the researchers who contribute to the production of more effective public policies.

What other activities are you involved with?

Many things! I’ve been teaching probability theory, applied mathematics, and programming to undergraduate economics students in Marseille, which was such an inspiring experience,  even if trying to get them interested is sometimes challenging.

At GHECO, I’m part of the Preferences, Behaviour, and Outcomes group, to which I’ll contribute by giving a small speech about the Respondent-Driven Sampling method. I’ll also present my ongoing work on pregnant women’s and healthcare workers’ preferences in managing the risk of vertical transmission of STDs at the GHECO seminar on March 27.

I’m also part of a French multidisciplinary research project aimed at preparing the response to the next pandemic. As COVID-19 was the spark that drove me into health economics, being part of such a team is an achievement for me (of course, we hope our research will never be needed—but just in case…). It’s inspiring to work with experts in infectious diseases, socio-anthropologists, psychologists, and more, as they combine their efforts to produce responses that integrate different fields of expertise.

What do you like doing outside of LSHTM?

I have a passion for medicine, mathematics, and… bugs (yes, I’m a bit of a nerd), so I’m taking advantage of my stay in London to visit all kinds of museums. The medicine section of the Science Museum is great, as is the insect section of the Natural History Museum!

I also read a lot. If you’re looking for a book about mathematical mistakes, you should consider Matt Parker’s Humble Pi — it's a must-read!

Do you have any advice for anyone who is interested in pursuing a PhD?

When I started my PhD, older colleagues told me, 'You’ll see, it’s a whole journey’. I would now understand it as: it’s going to be an exciting and resource-intensive path through which a PhD candidate becomes a young researcher.

Anyone beginning a PhD should be aware that, in my opinion, it’s not really about becoming an expert in a very specific topic, but rather about learning how to produce knowledge and understanding what the scientific approach is. So, to any graduate student thinking about pursuing a PhD, I would tell them to ask themselves: 'Am I motivated enough to go through the whole PhD journey and learn how to be a researcher in this field?' rather than 'Am I passionate enough about this topic?'

The topic is important, but the path from the first day to the last is what’s going to make you a researcher (and mine is not over, I’m still discovering new things, believe me, even if I’m getting closer to the end).You’ll face pitfalls, doubts, and the need to start over, but c’est le métier qui rentre - that’s a French expression roughly meaning that experience comes with practice (and sometimes a bit of pain).

How can people stay in touch with you?

You can write me an email at antoine.lacombe@univ-amu.fr. I also have a Bluesky account and a LinkedIn profile.

Also, I’ll be presenting my ongoing project at the GHECO monthly seminar on March 27, so feel free to join!