Summary
Overview
Work history
Education
Skills
Academic Articles
Press Articles
Languages
Timeline
Generic

Maximilien Lacour

London

Summary

PhD student in the department of political economy at King's College London. Currently researching the role that simulation modelling has played in shaping the British state's responses to outbreaks of epidemic disease since AIDS.

Overview

6
6
years of professional experience

Work history

PhD Student in Political Economy

King's College London
London
01.2025 - Current
  • I am researching the role that simulation modelling has played in shaping the British state's response to outbreaks of epidemic disease. My research currently focuses on four outbreaks in particular: AIDS (1981-1983), Foot-and-Mouth (2001), Swine Flu (2009), and COVID-19 (2020-2021). My advisor is Professor Mark Pennington.
  • More broadly, I am interested in contributing to our theoretical understanding of policymaking networks by drawing on and combining the work of Michel Foucault and recent work in liberal political economy, in particular Richard Wagner's work on 'entangled' political economy. My other research interests include the philosophy of science, political theory, and their vital but understudied intersection.

Research Assistant

University of Saskatchewan
London
04.2025 - 06.2025
  • Assisted in drafting and theoretically framing a systematic review of cost-benefit and cost-efficacy analyses of COVID-19 policies.

Research Associate/Fellow

Collateral Global Charity
London
07.2024 - 03.2025
  • I worked on a number of projects, including: compiling the first database on post-COVID-19 national inquiries (currently under review at BMJ Public Health) and drawing up a series of reform proposals for global health security and scientific advisory bodies, in both the USA and UK.
  • I also worked on the successful campaign to get one of the heads of our charity, Jay Bhattacharya, nominated as director of the National Institutes of Health. As a part of that work, I produced memos and information packets on senators, senate committees, and public trust in public health and medicine.

Research assistant

London School of Economics, Department of Law
London
07.2024 - 08.2024
  • I worked with a professor of law on a book examining the political sociology of Britain during the era of globalisation.

Recruitment Officer

Actimage
Luxembourg
04.2022 - 07.2022
  • I was a member of the HR team of a digital consultancy;
  • I successfully sourced and contacted potential candidates;
  • I researched various advertising options to place ads and attract candidates;
  • As a result of this experience, I gained a good working knowledge of LinkedIn recruiter and Breezy, as well as a sound understanding of how digital consultancy functions.

Teaching Assistant for Undergraduate Philosophy

Trinity College Dublin
Dublin
10.2020 - 05.2021
  • I taught philosophy of science to several undergraduate cohorts. Covered a wide range of topics, including problems of epistemology, the history of science, and ethics of scientific research. I also taught symbolic logic.
  • I planned and gave lessons and marked summative essays at the end of the year.
  • I found this experience to be very enjoyable and was rewarded by a number of positive reviews at the end of the academic year.

Part-time Tutor

Self-Employed
London/Oxford
03.2019 - Current
  • I tutored a number of children in various subjects including A-Level philosophy, A-Level geography, GCSE maths, GCSE English;
  • I looked after a child with multiple special-needs, doing school-runs and homework with him as his parents required;
  • This experience was - and continues to be - important for understanding how to adapt explanations of concepts or ideas to a target audience, and to play to each pupil's strength.

Education

MPhil - Social Anthropology

University of Oxford
Oxford
09.2022 -

MPhil - Philosophy

Trinity College Dublin
Dublin
03.2022

Bachelor of Science - Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method

London School of Economics (LSE)
London
08.2020

A-Levels -

Westminster School
London
07.2017

GCSE -

Hall School Wimbledon
London
2015

Skills

  • Quantitative methods training completed as a part of my degree at Oxford have given me a good working understanding of R for use in generating descriptive statistics and basic data modelling (specifically using the ggplot2 package)
  • Proficient with Microsoft Excel and Powerpoint
  • I have strong verbal and written communication, as well as good academic research skills
  • I have experience in time-pressured translation of French-to-English for research purposes
  • I am familiar with film-making and am competent with editing softwares and cameras

Academic Articles

  • "How Many Democratic Countries Have Conducted Covid-19 Public Inquiries? An Exploratory Study Of Government-Led Post-Pandemic Reviews (2020-2024)", currently under review at BMJ Public Health, preprint available at: https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5069344
  • "Following The Science: An Essay on the Role of Scientific Advice in the UK Government's Decision to Impose a Lockdown in March 2020", Oxford MPhil thesis, preprint available at: https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5207323

Press Articles

  • "What nation, whose interests?", The Critic, July 21st 2025
  • "Jeremy Clarkson and the Paradox of 'Wilding'", Café Américain, June 6th 2025
  • "Klaus Schwab was always too powerless to be a bogeyman", UnHerd, April 22nd 2025
  • "The costs of cost-benefit analysis", The Critic, April 15th 2025
  • "Pandemic planners haven’t learnt from their Covid mistakes", UnHerd, January 7th 2025
  • "A day in Scientopia", The Critic, December 28th 2024
  • "No Pandemic is a Natural Phenomenon", Café Américain, October 25th 2024
  • "No lessons learned from lockdown", The Critic, August 1st 2024
  • "Contra Hitchens on the election", The Critic, July 18th 2024
  • "Lockdowns and the problem with science-based policy", The Critic, July 8th 2024
  • "Science-Totalitarianism Now Threatens Liberalism", Brownstone Institute, January 24th 2024
  • "Cancel culture is a culture", The Critic, November 3rd 2023
  • "Why Did People Comply?", Brownstone Institute, October 1st 2023 (Republished on ZeroHedge)


Languages

English, French
Native language

Timeline

Research Assistant

University of Saskatchewan
04.2025 - 06.2025

PhD Student in Political Economy

King's College London
01.2025 - Current

Research Associate/Fellow

Collateral Global Charity
07.2024 - 03.2025

Research assistant

London School of Economics, Department of Law
07.2024 - 08.2024

MPhil - Social Anthropology

University of Oxford
09.2022 -

Recruitment Officer

Actimage
04.2022 - 07.2022

Teaching Assistant for Undergraduate Philosophy

Trinity College Dublin
10.2020 - 05.2021

Part-time Tutor

Self-Employed
03.2019 - Current

MPhil - Philosophy

Trinity College Dublin

Bachelor of Science - Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method

London School of Economics (LSE)

A-Levels -

Westminster School

GCSE -

Hall School Wimbledon

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Maximilien Lacour