I am a practising respiratory, sleep, general and public health physician - and head of the Epidemiological Modelling Unit for the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University. To-date, most of my research has focused on TB epidemiology and control, but my Unit has recently shifted its focus to include a strong interest in the COVID-19 pandemic. I also have clinical and research interests in cystic fibrosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, influenza, non-tuberculous mycobacterial diseases and behavioural sleep disorders. Methodological approaches used in these areas include deterministic and stochastic modelling, agent-based simulations, applied mathematics, Bayesian inference, statistics, epidemiology, health economics, computer science and data visualisation.
My Unit has close links to the World Health Organization, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria and domestic Australian government departments. In collaboration with these organisations, I have developed several modelling tools to support policy makers and public health professionals to understand and fight infectious disease threats better. These projects have been undertaken in collaboration with countries including Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Uzbekistan, Bulgaria, Bhutan and Mongolia.
I collaborate closely with researchers at James Cook University through our modelling platform for TB control in high-burden countries (the Australian Tuberculosis Modelling Network or AuTuMN) and have been on the Steering Committee of the TB Modelling and Analysis Consortium (the global body responsible for the coordination of TB modelling and epidemiology).