Aya Mousa

Dr Aya Mousa is a postdoctoral research fellow with the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University. She was awarded her PhD in April 2018, which was a clinical research PhD in the area of diabetes prevention, with a focus on nutritional interventions including vitamin D. She also has a background in public health and health services research from her undergraduate and Honours degrees in Health Sciences, where she graduated at the top of her class for both degrees, recieving the Senior Scholar Award for having the highest grade point average (GPA) in her Bachelor's degree and the Honours Prize for again having the highest GPA in her Honours program.

Prior to commencing her PhD, Dr Mousa worked as a teaching associate at the University of Auckland in New Zealand where she taught epidemiology and biostatistics, quantitative and qualitative research methods, and public health research theory and practice. She then commenced her PhD where she consolidated her prior knowledge through formal coursework in advanced biostatistics and chronic disease epidemiology and obtained new practical skills in clinical research by conducting a clinical trial from start to finish and developing strong expertise in clinical trial methodologies and practical applications. She also performed large scale epidemiological studies and evidence syntheses with meta-analyses, and conducted fieldwork and translational activities.

Dr. Mousa has published extensively in the areas of metabolism, nutrition, diabetes, and pregnancy and possesses a unique skillset spanning across the research continuum from mechanistic and epidemiological research to clinical and public health research and translation. She has presented her work at prominent national and international scientific meetings and her work has been recognised with multiple awards and commendations including the Henry Krum Prize for Clinical Sciences, the Monash Health First Prize Endocrinology Clinical Research Award, and being nominated for the Victorian Premier's Award for Health and Medical Research. She also received a highly competitive Postdoctoral Bridging Fellowship, after which she was awarded an NHMRC Early Career Fellowship only 3 months after PhD conferral.