Dr Helen Ackland is the Senior Clinical Trauma Research Fellow at the National Trauma Research Institute, and is the recipient of the Alfred-Monash ICU Research Fellowship. She has also received fellowships from the Transport Accident Commission and the Victorian Trauma Foundation for studies involving spinal injury assessment and imaging. Her research work on cervical spine trauma and ladder fall-related injuries has been conducted in collaboration with The Alfred hospital intensive care, emergency, radiology, neurosurgery, orthopaedic surgery and trauma departments, and her research interests extend to work with the Monash Bionic Vision project, where she is a co-investigator on the ARC-funded project entitled andlsquo;3-Tesla MRI volumetric and diffusion tensor analyses of the primary visual cortex.'

Dr Ackland is also a lecturer in the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, and after more than two decades of clinical experience, she is passionate about educating health professionals in the areas of public health, health policy and good research practice. She co-ordinates several units in undergraduate biomedical science and medicine, and in postgraduate public health.