Prof Allen Cheng is an infectious diseases physician. He is Professor/Director of Monash Infectious Diseases at Monash Health. He has a PhD (Flinders University), a Master of Public Health (Monash University) and a Master of Biostatistics (University of Queensland). He has previously worked as an infectious diseases and general physician in Darwin and Geelong, and has worked in remote communities in the Top End of Australia, and in Papua New Guinea, Thailand, the United States and Finland.

His research covers a diverse area within infectious diseases, including sepsis, influenza and vaccine effectiveness, hospital infection prevention and control, antibiotic pharmacokinetics, antimicrobial drug policy and clinical infectious diseases. He has published over 400 peer-reviewed scientific publications (as well as >50 letters/editorials and 17 book chapters).

Prof Cheng is a Past President of the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases (ASID); he was the primary author for national guidelines for H1N1/09 influenza and Clostridium difficile infection; a foundation member of the Clinical Research Network of ASID; a steering committee member for the National Prescribing Service Antibiotic Resistance initiative; and a member of expert writing groups for Therapeutic Guidelines: Antibiotic and Respiratory. He has been a member of the Expert Advisory Groups revising the Australian Infection Control Guidelines and Staying healthy: Preventing infectious diseases in early childhood education and care services for NHMRC. 

He has been Chair of the Advisory Committee for Vaccines (2017-22) and a previous member of the Advisory Committee on Prescription Medicines (advising the Therapeutic Goods Administration on vaccine and drug regulation issues), and Co-Chair of the Australian Technical Group on Immunisation (ATAGI 2018-22). He is also a member of the National Influenza Surveillance Committee.  During the COVID-19 pandemic, he was a member of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (2020-22), the Communicable Diseases Network of Australia and was was seconded to the Victorian Department of Health as Deputy Chief Health Officer (2020-21).

His work has been recognized as recipient of a NHMRC Excellence Award (2014), a Victorian Public Healthcare Award (Healthcare Innovation) for work with the Antimicrobial Stewardship Team, Alfred Health (2013), and recipient of the Frank Fenner Award for Advanced Research in Infectious Diseases (ASID, 2012). He has also been a technical advisor to the World Health Organisation, resulting in drafting of international guidelines for management of sepsis and for severe H1N1/09 infection.