Health Research Impact Committee 2021–2024

Professor Emily Banks is Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health and Head of the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University.  She is a Senior Advisor to the Sax Institute and a Visiting Professor at Oxford University. She is also a long-term member of the National Heart Foundation of Australia's Research Advisory Committee.

A public health physician and chronic disease epidemiologist, Professor Banks' research focuses on the health effects of alcohol, including cancer, cardiovascular diseases, cirrhosis and gallbladder diseases. She also has research interests in large-scale cohort studies, pharmacoepidemiology, women's health, Aboriginal health and healthy ageing. Her work draws on cohort studies to identify potentially modifiable factors affecting individual and population health in different settings and, in quantifying their effects, to inform improvements in health and health care.  

Professor Banks previously served on NHMRC's Research Committee and was Deputy Chair of the NHMRC Alcohol Working Committee, responsible for revising the Australian Guidelines to Reduce Health Risks from Drinking Alcohol. 

Professor Banks was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2021 for significant service to medical research and education. She is a Fellow of the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine, the Royal Australian College of Physicians and the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.
 

Member with expertise in clinical medicine/ science

Professor Anne Chang is the Head of the Child Health Division at Darwin's Menzies School of Health Research. She is also a Pre-eminent Senior Medical Officer at the Queensland Children's Hospital, and a Visiting Specialist at both the Nganampa Health Council and Royal Darwin Hospital. Professor Chang has been a NHMRC Practitioner Fellow since 2004.

After completing her medical degree and PhD at the University of Melbourne, Professor Chang undertook further qualifications in public health and tropical medicine at James Cook University. Where she works with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Central Australia, Darwin and Far North Queensland. Her research interests include common paediatric illnesses such as chronic cough, bronchiectasis and asthma. Professor Chang had led the development of national and international guidelines for bronchiectasis management, as well as chronic cough.

She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health & Medical Science, the Thoracic Society of Australia and NZ, and the Asia Pacific Society of Respirology. Professor Chang was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2019 for her significant service to paediatric respiratory medicine as a clinician and researcher, and was awarded the Royal Australasian College of Physicians' prestigious Howard Williams Medal in 2021.

Member with expertise in clinical medicine/ science

Professor Jonathan Craig is the Matthew Flinders Distinguished Professor and Vice-President and Executive Dean, College of Medicine and Public Health at Flinders University.

Professor Craig has made a significant contribution to the clinical research landscape in the prevention, identification, management and treatment of chronic kidney disease, particularly in relation to children and in Indigenous communities. He has also led the formation of state, national and international networks to conduct high-quality, relevant trials in children and has been instrumental to the development and implementation of best-practice methods and guidelines relating to chronic kidney disease in Australia and globally.

Professor Craig's many current advisory roles include the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, Medical Services Advisory Committee and Commonwealth Department of Health Life Savings Drug Program. He was a 2018–2021 Committee Member of NHMRC's Health Translation Advisory Committee.

Member with expertise in multidisciplinary research

Mr Simon Deeming is a Health Research Economist with the Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI) in Newcastle. His research expertise lies with optimisation of the beneficial impacts from health policy and health services, and optimisation of the beneficial impacts from the investment in medical and health research.

Prior to joining the HMRI, Mr Deeming was Director of Research at the Hunter Valley Research Foundation, where his research informed on economic trends, guided economic and social policy, and evaluated proposed infrastructure investments. His research has directly informed more than $2 billion of private and public sector investment.

Since joining the HMRI, he has undertaken research for tertiary and primary healthcare providers to optimise service delivery, and research for the Cancer Council of NSW, the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education and the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre to inform public health policy. His research on medical and health research has led to collaborations with policy makers at the Australian Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, the Health Research Council of New Zealand, the UK National Institute of Health Research Central Commissioning Facility, the UK NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, and the NSW Office of Health and Medical Research regarding research impact assessment and economic evaluation policy.

Mr Deeming is presently working across a range of research fields, including housing, obstetric models of care, childhood obesity, surgical treatments, diabetes management, active transport initiatives, social intercession programmes, indigenous health service provision, cancer treatments and smoking cessation interventions, collaborating with clinical, policy and academic researchers from the HMRI, the University of Newcastle, the University of NSW, Hunter New England Health, and numerous other organisations.

Member with expertise in the health needs of Aboriginal persons and Torres Strait Islanders

Professor Gail Garvey is a Goori woman from NSW and is Professor of Indigenous Health Research and Senior Principal Research Fellow at The University of Queensland.

Professor Garvey has over 30 years of leadership and impact in Aboriginal health research, education and capacity building. She has established an extensive and targeted research program focused on cancer and the wellbeing of Australia's First Nations people.

Her research program on Australia's First Nations Peoples and cancer, health services research and psychosocial aspects of cancer care are internationally recognised. Professor Garvey currently leads a National Health and Medical Research Council Centre of Research Excellence in targeted approaches to improve cancer services for Indigenous Australians. She has extensive experience in translating research into policy and practice.

Professor Garvey's emerging research focus on understanding and measuring wellbeing from the perspectives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is gaining increasing attention. Her collaborative work fills an important gap in the availability of valid and culturally-robust measures to inform clinical and policy decision making to improve the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Member with expertise in multidisciplinary research

Professor Billie Giles-Corti is a Distinguished Professor and Vice-Chancellor's Professorial Fellow at RMIT University's Centre for Urban Research.

For over two decades, Professor Giles-Corti has led a multi-disciplinary research team studying the impact of the built environment on health and wellbeing.  From 2014 to 2020, she led the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Healthy Liveable Communities and worked closely with local, national and global policy-makers and practitioners.

Professor Giles-Corti was an NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow from 2016 to 2020, and was awarded the NHMRC Elizabeth Blackburn Fellowship as the top ranked female fellow in public health in 2015. Professor Giles-Corti regularly serves on NHMRC Grant Review Panels and is a grant reviewer for the Australian Research Council.

Member with expertise in health services research/ health systems

Professor Paul Glasziou is Professor of Evidence-Based Practice at Bond University and the Director of the Institute for Evidence Based Healthcare.

His key interests include identifying and removing the barriers to using high quality research in everyday clinical practice. He is a leader within the Reward Alliance, investigating research waste and promoting better prioritisation, design, conduct, regulation, management and reporting of health research. Other interests include overdiagnosis and overtreatment, general practice, uptake of evidence for non-drug interventions, and automation of systematic review processes.

Professor Glasziou was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2021 for his distinguished service to medical education and standards, and to evidence-based medical research. He is on the Board of directors for Therapeutic Guidelines Limited and serves as the Chair of NHMRC's Research Quality Steering Committee.

Member with expertise in nursing

Professor Julian Grant is a Professor of Nursing and Associate Head of School for Research and Graduate Studies at Charles Sturt University.

Professor Grant's research focuses on understanding the individual and systemic barriers for the nursing and interdisciplinary workforce tasked with promoting the wellbeing of children and young people. This particularly relates to those who are vulnerable due to the intersections of race, gender and class and those at risk of, or exposed to abuse or neglect. After working substantially with refugee mothers and families, and due to her increasing reputation as a culturally safe researcher, Professor Grant has been invited to work with children and families from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds.

As a Past President of Maternal, Child and Family Health Nurses Australia, Professor Grant led the core professional workforce providing primary health care for well infants, and young children in Australia. She is regularly invited to make expert submissions on national issues related to infant and child health, wellbeing and child protection. Her work strengthens the interdisciplinary child health, wellbeing and education workforce, and shapes policy to enable families to optimise their children's wellbeing.

Member with expertise in commercialisation

Ms Jennifer Herz is the Co-founder and Director of Biointelect. She founded Biointelect in 2011 to provide strategic commercialisation services to the biopharmaceutical industry.

She has over twenty years commercial, business development and scientific affairs experience in the biopharmaceutical industry and has held a variety of roles with responsibility for Australia, New Zealand and European markets. She is active in a variety of European and International Industry Association working groups responsible for liaison with health authorities including European Institutions and the WHO.

Ms Herz serves as a Member of the Expert Reference Group of APPRISE, the Australian Partnership for Preparedness Research on Infectious Disease Emergencies. She was a 2018–2021 Committee Member of NHMRC's Health Innovation Advisory Committee and a member of the Steering Committee of PRISM, the Centre for Research Excellence in Policy Relevant Infectious Disease Simulation and Mathematical Modelling.

Member with expertise in commercialisation

Dr Alastair Hick is the Senior Director of Monash Innovation at Monash University. He has over 20 years' experience in the research and technology commercialisation sectors.

Dr Hick was head of Life Sciences at Cambridge Enterprise, United Kingdom. Since joining Monash University in 2006, he has developed a successful licensing and spin out program, including proof of concept funds and strategic partnerships with multiple investors leading to over $200 million raised by Monash spin outs in the 5 years to 2021. He oversees The Generator, which runs a wide range of entrepreneurship programs across the university and plays a key role in the development of innovation and entrepreneurship activities across the university.

Dr Hick is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He was a founding Director of the $30 million Trans-Tasman Commercialisation Fund and a member of its investment committee and has served on the Board of a number of Monash spin out companies. He previously served on the Board of Knowledge Commercialisation Australasia and was Chair for four years. Dr Hick has been a member of the IP Australia Stakeholders Forum as well as developing and running multiple training programs for technology transfer professionals.

Member with expertise in public health/ population health
Member-in-Common with Australian Health Ethics Committee

Professor of Anthropology at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and Deputy Director of the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation at Deakin University.

A cultural and medical anthropologist, Professor Kowal's previous work as a medical doctor and public health researcher in Indigenous health settings in Australia has led to two intersecting lines of theory and empirical research focused on Australian racial politics and the anthropology of biomedical research, genomics, bioethics, and public health. Her research has focused on Indigenous biospecimen collections including establishing an appropriate and ethical management strategy for the return of samples previously collected from Indigenous communities.

She is current President of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) and a past member of the National Committee for History and Philosophy of Science of the Australian Academy of Science and immediate past Convenor of the Asia-Pacific Science, Technology and Society Network. She previously served on the Expert Advisory Committee for the National Genomic Futures Mission, Department of Health.

Professor Kowal is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow and a Fellow of the Australian Academy for Social Sciences. She was the recipient of a 2013 National Citation for Outstanding Student Learning for her contribution to Indigenous studies and 2015 recipient of the Academy of the Social Sciences Paul Bourke Award for Early Career Research.

Member with expertise in social science and public health

Professor Julie Leask is a Professor with the Susan Wakil School of Nursing and Midwifery in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney. She is also affiliated with the School of Public Health and the Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity the University of Sydney and is visiting professorial fellow at the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance.

Professor Leask is a social scientist with qualifications in public health, nursing and midwifery. Her research focus is immunisation uptake, policy, programs, controversies and communication. She applies knowledge and methods from psychology, sociology, public health ethics, audience studies and implementation science. She also undertakes some research and teaching in environmental health risk communication. She is in receipt of an NHMRC Investigator Grant.

Professor Leask's international expert contributions to vaccination include the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the US President's Cancer Panel, US Centre for Diseases Control and Prevention and International Federation for the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. She serves on a range of advisory bodies including the World Health Organisation's COVID-19 vaccine safety communication working group for the Global Advisory Committee of Vaccine Safety and the Australian Government's Regional Vaccine Access and Health Security Initiative Expert Advisory Group.

Professor Leask was named the overall and global category winner of the Australian Financial Review 100 Women of Influence Awards in 2019.

Member with expertise in basic science/research

Associate Professor Shalin Naik is a cell biologist and Group Leader at WEHI (formally The Walter & Eliza Hall Institute) and the University of Melbourne.

His research considers how the cells of the immune system are formed from blood stem cells with the objective of advancing strategies for manipulating blood stem cells that may have future applications for stem cell therapy or immune therapy, and provide insights into cancer formation.

A/Prof Naik worked at the Netherlands Cancer Institute prior to returning to Australia to run his own stem cell research laboratory at WEHI. The Naik Laboratory's focus is technology-driven with the philosophy that studying single cells at different functional and molecular levels, and integrating this information, with a view to revealing the mechanisms behind their fate specification in health and disease.

A/Prof Naik currently serves as Chair and co-convenor for Oz Single Cell, and Member of the International Organizing Committee of Human Cell Atlas. In 2013, A/Prof Naik was awarded the Young Tall Poppy of the Year which celebrates researchers with notable scientific achievements who communicate well with the wider community. He also received the Burnet Prize in 2021 which is awarded to the most pioneering research of the preceding years at WEHI.

Member with expertise in consumer issues

Ms Yvonne Parnell is the CEO of Future Living, a not-for-profit entity in the disability sector providing education, advocacy, planning and trustee services to people with developmental disability and their families.

She serves as the Consumer Representative Board Member of the South Metropolitan Health Service in Western Australia and more recently appointed as a Member to the WA Health Sustainable Health Review Recommendation 4 Steering Group. Ms Parnell also served as the Consumer Member on the National Goals of Care Collaborative Steering Committee for WA Health and the Thoracic Surgery Committee for the Medicare Benefits Schedule Review Taskforce.

Prior to this she was a Consumer Representative Member on the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency WA Dental Committee and sat as a Member on the North Metropolitan Health Service Governing Council. Ms Parnell holds a post graduate qualification in disability.

Member with expertise in clinical medicine/ science
Member-in-Common with Research Committee

Professor Anushka Patel is the Vice-Principal Director and Chief Scientist at The George Institute for Global Health, Professor of Medicine at UNSW Sydney, and Cardiologist at Central Sydney Cardiology and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney.

Professor Patel's research focuses on understanding and improving cardiovascular disease management in global populations. She currently leads research projects focusing on developing innovative solutions for delivering affordable and effective cardiovascular care in the community and in acute care hospital settings with partners in a number of countries including Australia, China, Indonesia and India.

Professor Patel has served as a member of the NHMRC Research Committee since 2018. She holds a Principal Research Fellowship from the NHMRC.

Member with expertise in basic science/ research

Associate Professor Enzo Porrello is Director of the Melbourne Centre for Cardiovascular Genomics and Regenerative Medicine (CardioRegen), Head of the Heart Regeneration Group and NHMRC Investigator at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute.

A/Prof Porrello's research focuses on the development of regenerative therapies for children and adults with heart failure. Over the course of his career, A/Prof Porrello has made important contributions to our understanding of mammalian heart regeneration and has pioneered the development of human cardiac organoids for drug discovery and regenerative medicine.

A/Prof Porrello's research has been recognized by a number of prestigious awards including the Metcalf Prize for Stem Cell Research, Heart Foundation Paul Korner Innovation Award and A.K. McIntyre Prize (Australian Physiological Society). He is a member of the editorial boards of Circulation and npj Regenerative Medicine. A/Prof Porrello is also a co-founder and scientific advisor of Dynomics, a biotechnology company focused on the development of new drugs to treat heart failure.