Professor Karin Leder (MBBS, FRACP, FAAHMS, PhD, MPH, DTMH) is co-lead of the Planetary Health Division and Head of the Infectious Diseases Epidemiology Unit in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University; co-Director of the transdisciplinary Revitalising Informal Settlements and their Environments (RISE) program; Director of Monash’s Health and Climate Initiative; and an infectious diseases physician running the Travel Medicine and Immigrant Health Services at the Victorian Infectious Disease Service, Royal Melbourne Hospital. She is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, an ASTMH Distinguished International Fellow, and a Fellow of the International Society of Travel Medicine.

Prof Leder is involved in diverse areas of clinical and public health research, with expertise in transdisciplinary collaborations related to environmental exposures, particularly faecal contamination and climate-related exposures. Most of her research focuses on the Asia Pacific region. She has led an Australian research group investigating human health concerns related to water exposures, including alternative water sources in the context of climate change adaptation, and her work has contributed to national guidelines and public health policy.

Prof Leder is co-Director and Director of Research for the Monash-led RISE project (https://www.rise-program.org/) that is investigating the impacts of improved environmental health on human health outcomes in informal communities in Fiji and Indonesia. RISE is providing improved water and sanitation management through delivery of nature-based solutions, and is investigating the effects on the physical and microbiological health of the environment and inhabitants. She is also leading a work program through an NHMRC IDEAS grant that is assessing novel methods for measuring environmental microbial contamination and the relative importance of pathogen acquisition by a range of exposure pathways.

As Director of Monash’s Health and Climate Initiative (https://www.monash.edu/medicine/health-and-climate), Prof Leder is involved in projects related to implementation of climate adaptation measures, improving sustainability in healthcare, and providing guidance to clinicians and communities.

Prof Leder has been a Leader of GeoSentinel, the largest global sentinel surveillance system for imported infections, and is the Australian site director. Through monitoring the spread of pathogens across international borders, she has led or contributed to multiple collaborative internationally renowned research projects, with outputs used to update international WHO and CDC guidelines for travel medicine. She also has expertise in prevention of infections, including vaccination.

Prof Leder has published approx. 300 research publications and book chapters, and has received >$65m AUD in research funding. She has extensive experience with running projects that use a variety of research methods for assessing public health interventions. She is the Travel Medicine Section Editor and an invited co-author on >25 chapters for UpToDate, a widely used clinician's tool. She has been an invited expert the World Health Organisation’s strategies for International Travel and Health, an advisor to the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, past-president of the Asia Pacific Society of Travel Medicine, Board Member for the International Society of Travel Medicine, Associate Editor for Science Advances, and Regional Advisor for the Journal of Travel Medicine. She has served on multiple NHMRC committees.

Prof Leder has extensive experience with student supervision, mentoring and teaching. She played a key role in the Australian COVID response, including as a leading contributor to Australian National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce. She is a founding member of the Monash Centre to Impact AMR and is helping to build capacity with a “One Health” approach to AMR across the Asia-Pacific region.