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Key Staff
Staff involved in infectious diseases research
| Professor Raina MacIntyre - see full research interests profile >>
Raina MacIntyre is Head of the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at UNSW and professor of infectious diseases epidemiology. She runs a highly strategic research program spanning epidemiology, vaccinology, mathematical modelling, public health and clinical trials in infectious diseases. Her research is supported by NHMRC and ARC grants, and she has received international recognition by way of a major award, the Sir Henry Wellcome Medal and Prize, from the US military in 2007 for her work on bioterrorism. She has also won the Australian Society for Infectious Diseases Award for Advanced Research in Infectious Diseases. She is best known for research in the detailed understanding of the transmission dynamics and prevention of infectious diseases, particularly respiratory pathogens such as influenza, tuberculosis and other vaccine-preventable infections. Other disease areas of interest include HPV, hepatitis A, herpes zoster, measles and pneumococcal disease. She has a particular interest in adult vaccination with a focus on the elderly, and vaccination in high risk groups such as the immunosuppressed.
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| Professor Nicholas Zwar - see full research interests profile >>
Is Professor of General Practice in School of Public Health and Community Medicine. His main research areas include Primary Health Care, Chronic Disease, Health Services Research, Chronic Disease, Preventative Medicine, Smoking Cessation and Respiratory Medicine. This work is done in close collaboration with the UNSW Research Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity. He also has an interest in travel medicine, immunisation and vaccines and has been led research projects on influenza vaccination and help seeking behaviour of Australian travellers.
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| Professor Mary-Louise McLaws - see full research interests profile >>
Mary-Louise McLaws has worked in clinical epidemiology focusing on infection control surveillance, patient safety and healthcare worker behaviour associated with the transmission of infectious diseases. Her national survey of healthcare associated infection was a seminal study for Australia in 1986 as was the first pilot of a standardised surveillance system for healthcare associated infections on behalf of the NSW DoH which won her the 1999 Baxter-Australian Healthcare Association Healthcare Innovation Award - for Standardised Surveillance of Hospital Infection in Australia. She has worked with the Clinical Excellence Commission on projects that aim to reduce the transmission of infection through improved clinical practice. She has been a World Health Organization advisor and collaborates on research into healthcare associated infections and infectious diseases around Australia as well as Iran, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Macau and China. Her most recent WHO roles have included an advisor to the Chinese Ministry of Health on the development of a national accreditation system for infection control and associated patient safety practices, and an advisor to the Malaysian Ministry of Health to their development of a national hospital infection surveillance system.
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| A/Prof Juliet Richters - see full research interests profile >>
Dr Juliet Richters is a social epidemiologist whose work focuses on sexual behaviour and sexual health. In the 1980s she worked in Family Planning Association’s education unit then moved into research to undertake one of Australia’s first social research projects under the Commonwealth AIDS Research Grant scheme, working with Dr Basil Donovan on condom use for HIV prevention. Since 1996 she has specialised in research into sexual practice among both men and women; she has a particular interest in the material context of risk and determinants of the success or failure of ‘safe sex’. She was a principal investigator on the Australian Study of Health and Relationships (the ‘Sex in Australia’ survey) and is now a principal investigator on two NHMRC-funded studies: the Australian Longitudinal Study of Health and Relationships, and Sexual Health and Attitudes of Australian Prisoners. Dr Richters has also conducted research into sexual practice and HIV/STI risk among women in contact with the gay community, among university students and among gay men. Her current interest in chlamydia prevention includes a pilot study of lay understandings of sexual transmission of viruses and bacteria.
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| Dr James Wood - see full research interests profile >>
Dr James Wood is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, specialising in infectious disease modelling. His training was in mathematics and physics and he was awarded his PhD in mathematical physics at the University Queensland in 2004. In infectious disease modelling, he has expertise in modelling the control of emerging infections and the analysis and optimisation of vaccination programs. He was a co-author of a commonwealth report aimed at modelling responses to a new pandemic of influenza and was recently awarded, with Peter Caley of ANU, an ARC grant examining vaccination strategies for Tuberculosis in the developing world. Currently his modelling projects involve influenza, measles and tuberculosis.
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| Dr Niamh Stephenson - see full research interests profile >>
Dr Stephenson is a Senior Lecturer in Social Science the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, whose research examines the relationships between social change and transformations in public health practice and knowledge. Her book, Analysing Everyday Experience: Social Research and Political Change examines how HIV positive people’s experiences are both shaped by and can subvert dominant understandings of HIV, health and illness (co-authored with Dimitris Papadopoulos, published by Palgrave, 2006). Her forthcoming book, Escape Routes: Control and Subversion in the 21st Century, examines recent shifts in the politics of experience in the fields of health, labour and migration (co-authored with Dimitris Papadopoulos and Vassilis Tsianos, Pluto, 2008). She has published in the fields of social research, cultural studies and qualitative research methods and is currently undertaking work on pandemic influenza and biosecurity.
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| Dr Mohamud Sheikh - see full research interests profile >>
Dr Mohamud Sheikh is an NHMRC Public Health Research Fellow at the School of Public Health and Community Medicine and an international public health expert with over 17 years of experience in infectious diseases and tropical medicine. He has academic qualifications in Medical Laboratory Sciences (majoring in Medical Microbiology, Virology, Parasitology and Medical Entomology), and graduated from University of Sydney with Master of International Public Health, Master of Health Science (clinical data management & clinical trials), and a doctorate in public health, Mohamud comes with a rich clinical and non-clinical expertise. He also has various other trainings that include Public Health Anthropology, Health Programs Evaluation, and Data Management among other. Recently, Mohamud has had outstanding achievements and attained several key awards that included; Public Health Education Research & Training, Cross Cultural Public Health Research Award and 4 years fully funded NHMRC research fellowship. His research interest include, infectious diseases research (such as TB, Malaria, HIV/AIDS, Vaccine Preventable diseases & other), International Health Development, Refugee Health, Human Rights and Public Health, Tropical Diseases Surveillance and Control among other. He has had several peer-reviewed publications and reviews several international health journals.
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| Dr Zhanhai Gao - see full research interests profile >>
Zhanhai Gao is a mathematician pursuing research into mathematical modelling for infectious diseases, statistical analysis and data management. He joined the School of Public Health and Community Medicine UNSW in April 2008 after completing a PhD in applied mathematics (modelling HIV and Hepatitis C virus epidemics in Australia) and subsequent postdoctoral research in parasite biological & infectious disease modelling in livestock as well as mathematical modelling for vaccine preventable disease. His research interests include mathematical modelling and computing for infectious diseases, statistical analysis, mathematical biology, clinical trial data management and dynamical systems.
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| Dr Anthony Newall - see full research interests profile >>
Dr Anthony Newall is a lecturer (research) in health economics at The School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of New South Wales. He completed his Masters of Public Health (Hons) and PhD at the University of Sydney on the economic evaluation of vaccines in Australia. He has published peer-reviewed work on a range of topics, including the epidemiology and cost-effectiveness of prevention strategies for influenza (seasonal and pandemic), pneumococcal, rotavirus, and human papillomavirus. He is currently working on the evaluation of influenza vaccination strategies as part of his NHRMC Public Health Training Fellowship. His research focus is the epidemiology and economics of infectious diseases.
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| Dr Holly Seale - see full research interests profile >>
Holly joined the School of Public Health and Community Medicine in April 2008. She is a graduate of Biomedical Science from the University of Technology, Sydney and has recently submitted a PhD at the University of Sydney. Her thesis examined the epidemiology of severe cytomegalovirus (CMV) in Australia, with a special focus on congenital CMV and the burden in high-risk groups. She has worked as both a clinical trials and research assistant whilst undertaking her studies. Holly’s work now focuses on the background knowledge and attitudes of the community, as well as hospital health care workers towards different immunisation issues and disease prevention strategies. She is particularly interested in pandemic and annual influenza.
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| Ms Anita Heywood
Ms Anita Heywood completed her Master’s in Public Health at the University of Sydney in 2005 and is a graduate of Biomedical Science from the University of Technology, Sydney. She is currently undertaking her PhD with the SPHCM at the University of NSW. The subject of her thesis involves travel patterns and traveller behaviour and their relationship to the importation and emergence of communicable diseases in the Australian population. Contributing to her thesis is a survey of travellers to south-east Asia and China and a population survey of travel and health behaviours. In addition to this research, Anita is engaged in evidence-based research for the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance of Vaccine Preventable Diseases (NCIRS) at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead.
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Contact
Professor Raina MacIntyre
Head, School of Public Health
and Community Medicine
Level 3, Samuels Building
Gate 11,
Botany Street, Randwick
Faculty of Medicine
The University of
New South Wales
UNSW Sydney 2052
Australia
T +61 (2) 9385 3811
F +61 (2) 9313 6185
E hos-sphcm@unsw.edu.au
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