Professor Suzanne Nielsen (BPharmSc[Hons] PhD MPS) is an NHMRC Leadership Fellow and the Deputy Director of the Monash Addiction Research Centre in Melbourne, Australia. She is a clinician-researcher recognised internationally for her leadership in addiction medicine, medicines safety, and health systems research. Her work focuses on reducing harms associated with pharmaceutical and illicit drugs, with a particular emphasis on opioids, benzodiazepines, gabapentinoids, and emerging synthetic substances. She leads innovative multidisciplinary research spanning pharmacoepidemiology, clinical trials, implementation science, health services evaluation, and policy analysis.

Across more than 260 peer‑reviewed publications and >$35M in competitive funding, Prof Nielsen's research has directly contributed to national legislative and policy change (e.g., codeine upscheduling, naloxone access initiatives) and to improved clinical practice across pharmacy, primary care, and specialist addiction settings. She is committed to capacity building, supervising numerous PhD, Honours, and postgraduate students, and leading interdisciplinary collaborations in Australia and internationally, having given over 80 invited national and international conference presentations. 

Prof Nielsen leads a high-impact research program focused on reducing opioid-related harm, including routine monitoring of emerging synthetic opioids, evaluating policy impacts, and strengthening pharmacy-based prevention strategies. Her work also advances evidence-based treatment for substance use disorders, with a particular focus on improving and implementing models of care for opioid dependence, overdose prevention, and broader system-level responses. She is committed to promoting health equity for marginalised and vulnerable populations, and her research actively addresses stigma as a barrier to accessing compassionate, effective healthcare.

• Improving the safety and quality use of medicines, especially opioids and other psychoactive drugs
• Developing and evaluating novel models of care, including pharmacist‑prescriber collaborative models and community‑based harm reduction services
• Strengthening surveillance systems for drug‑related harms, including real‑time prescription monitoring and novel synthetic opioid detection
• Advancing strategies for preventing and treating substance use disorders, including opioid agonist therapy, naloxone distribution, and deprescribing frameworks.
• Understanding the impact of medicines policy changes on population health and health‑service utilisation
• Enhancing healthcare access and outcomes for groups experiencing disadvantage or complex health needs, including people who use drugs, older adults, and people involved in workers’ compensation systems