Newsletter | Term 3, 2025
Head of School update
It’s with mixed news that we bring the latest School of Population Health update to you.
Sadly, one of our students, Vinay Chansomphou, recently passed away after receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis. A high-achieving and very engaged student, Vinay was determined to complete his double master’s degree in Public Health and Infectious Diseases Intelligence (Extension). Vinay shared his story with UNSW.
We also acknowledge that it’s been a challenging time for our staff teaching in the undergraduate program, with the decision to disestablish the Bachelor of Public Health in 2026. Our thoughts are also with our public health colleagues at UTS. It’s more important than ever to continue the vital work of public health teaching and research.
On a positive note, our staff, conferred title holders, students and HDRs have continue to excel across education and research, and you can read about some of our recent achievements in this newsletter. I’d like to thank all involved in our school for their efforts in education and research across 2025, and as we get closer to the end of the year, remind everyone of the importance of taking a break from work and study.
Finally, I’d like to extend our thanks to our partners in South Western Sydney Local Health District and NSW Health for hosting our Health Systems and Service Improvement Masterclass at Liverpool Hospital. These are high value opportunities for our students to learn from executives and leaders working in their areas of study. Photos below!
Professor James Wood
Head of School
November 2025
Awards, promotions & achievements
BYO Innovation Challenge Showcase
The Bring Your Own (BYO) Innovation Challenge is an immersive program that equips participants with essential tools, feedback, and mentorship to refine a medical or health solution. This year, SPH was represented in the BYO Challenge Pitching Showcase by finalist Dr Jeffery Chan (Learning Health and Implementation Platform, School of Population Health), and winners, Joseph Zhu and Justin Tao (Everywhere Health, School of Population Health & School of Computer Science). Congratulations, Joseph, Justin and Jeffery!
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Promotions
We’re pleased to share recent academic promotions in SPH – Anne Hogden and Patricia Cullen have been promoted to Associate Professor.
Please also join us in congratulating Glen Ramos, SPH PhD Candidate, who has been elected as National President, Australian Health Promotion Association.
2025 School of Population Health award winners
The SPH annual awards recognise excellence in teaching, research, service and engagement. Our 2025 winners are:
- Peter Baume impactful partnerships award – Dr Lisa Sharwood
- ECR excellence award – Dr Carolyn Mazariego
- Excellence in HDR mentoring award – A/Prof Anurag Sharma
- Alan Hodgkinson teaching excellence award – Katrina Blazek
- Early career teaching award – Dr Esther Tordjmann and Dr Christine Linhart
- Learner engagement award – Dr Esther Tordjmann
- Outstanding service award (academic) – A/Prof Kathleen Falster
- Outstanding service award (professional) – Emily Hogden
- Higher degree research excellence award – Madeleine Powell
Education highlights
Harm reduction champions join SPH students in Advocacy Lab workshop
Leslie Copland, with Dr Rachel Rowe
In July, SPH students joined members of the Harm Reduction in Prisons Working Group and leading Australian drug policy researchers, Professor Alison Ritter and Dr Liz Barrett. The session involved a presentation of the campaign for harm reduction interventions to be offered in Australian prisons, including stakeholder analysis. Participants then brainstormed strategies and tactics to support injecting-related harm reduction in prisons, including Needle & Syringe Programs.
It was an exciting opportunity to contribute to the Harm Reduction in Prisons Working Group and to apply aspects of study to real-world policy problems. This workshop challenged us to think outside of the box for what continues to be an area of health policy where Australia’s human rights obligations to people in prison are not being met. The brainstorming activity resulted in a diverse list of possibilities, opportunities, and ideas to refresh the ongoing campaign.
The Advocacy Lab thanks Alison and Liz for their generous leadership. The ideas generated are being used to inform ongoing Advocacy Lab activities.
Student Translational Research Projects presented at conferences
Congratulations to students Dyone Bettega and Jiv Muthunesan, who were invited to present their research projects (undertaken as part of PHCM9153 Translational Research Project) at conferences in October. Dyone and Jiv are SPH Master of Health Leadership and Management students, and Health Management Interns in Western Sydney Local Health District. Dyone is also a postgraduate student representative on the UNSW Medine & Health Faculty Board.
Dyone presented her early research findings in a poster at the Annual Scientific Meeting for the Society of Obstetric Medicine of Australia and New Zealand, in Auckland. Dyone won best poster prize for her research titled “Navigating pregnancy with congenital heart disease: A mixed-methods exploration of the perinatal healthcare needs of women with CHD”. She is completing this project supervised by Dr Claire Deakin.
Jiv Muthunesan is completing a project supervised by Dr Ebony Lewis and Dr Deakin, “The role of smoking ceremonies in end of life care for Aboriginal patients and communities for providing culturally safe patient-centred care at Western Sydney Local Health District”. Jiv presented a poster on this work at the Indigenous Wellbeing Conference 2025, in Brisbane.
Impact and engagement
Medicines Intelligence Centre of Research Excellence Symposium
The Medicines Intelligence Centre of Research Excellence (MI-CRE) held its 5th Annual Research Symposium and Policy Forum – Better together: Advancing medicines intelligence through partnerships at UNSW. The 2-day meeting hosted by MI-CRE Director Prof Sallie Pearson brought together researchers, consumers, policy-makers and other key stakeholders from across Australia to hear about the latest research in the quality use of medicines and medicines safety. It featured invited speakers Prof Caroline Homer AO from the Burnet Institute and Chair of the NHMRC Council, Prof Peter Rijnbeek from Erasmus University and DARWIN-EU and Prof Robert Platt from McGill University and CNODES as well as presentations by E/MCRs from our research partner nodes across Australia. The abstracts and recordings of the Symposium will be available on the MI-CRE website shortly.
Advocating to remove the MRFF funding cap
Dr George Christopher Karystianis was invited by the Deputy Vice Chancellor Research, Professor Bronwyn Fox, to present at a Go8 press conference held in Canberra in November. The Go8 is calling for the removal of the $650 million cap on the MRFF and to return to the original annual distribution amount of $1 billion. In 2023, a successful MRFF grant by Dr Karystianis designed to address gaps in domestic and family violence information, was not awarded funding because of this cap, leading to missed chances to improve lives and empower communities.
The event is supported by MP Monique Ryan, who identified significant unspent surpluses held in the MRFF, and has called to increase funding from $650 million to $1.4 billion annually.
Respiratory virus surveillance and reporting capacity-building in Mongolia
Dr Alexandra Hogan, along with collaborators at the University of Melbourne (A/Prof Freya Shearer and Dr Oliver Eales) delivered a 4-day training session in infectious disease modelling and outbreak analytics to public health staff in Mongolia, to contribute to capacity building in respiratory virus surveillance and reporting. The training was organised by the World Health Organization, in collaboration with the Mongolian National Influenza Center (NIC) and National Center for Communicable Diseases (NCCD).
Sharing patient satisfaction insights
Dr Zhaoli Dai-Keller presented preliminary findings on virtual outpatient care satisfaction at the 2025 Health Beyond Research and Innovation Showcase, hosted by South Western Sydney Local Health District in September. The work was led by UNSW medical student Jason Tan, supervised by Malcolm Gillies and Dr Dai-Keller.
Spreading infectious disease modelling skills
Dr Alexandra Hogan and Prof James Wood, with colleagues from University of Melbourne and University of Canterbury, delivered a 2-day workshop in infectious disease modelling to 30 participants from state and federal health departments. They hosted the event in the new space in the Health Translation Hub.
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Media publications
Read the latest media publications from the School of Population Health (Note: SPH contributors are listed here, please click on the links to see all authors).
Noodles, pita bread, rice? How more diverse hospital menus can improve care – and reduce costs: Zhaoli Dai-Keller
Experts unpack ‘quadrobics’, the fitness trend that claims leaping around on all fours will make you fit: Samuel Cornell
A booming longevity industry wants to sell us ‘immortality’. There could be hidden costs: Samuel Cornell
Viral violent videos on social media are skewing young people’s sense of the world: Samuel Cornell
Why do smart people get hooked on wellness trends? Personality traits may play a role: Samuel Cornell
Why are young men ‘T maxxing’ testosterone? Do they need it? And what are the risks?: Samuel Cornell
Looking to warm up with a sauna this winter? Here are 5 tips to enjoy it safely: Samuel Cornell
Ice baths are booming in popularity – but they come with health risks: Samuel Cornell
New US directive for visa applicants turns social media feeds into political documents: Samuel Cornell
Research highlights
Grants
Safer and more effective blood transfusions for First Nations Australians
Prof Maree Toombs has been awarded a $1.59 million ARC Discovery Indigenous scheme grant. The project aims to create the first large-scale map of blood group variation in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It will utilise advanced DNA technology to map blood group genes and compile a detailed catalogue of genetic differences, leading to safer transfusions. The project will build Indigenous capacity in genomics.
Surveillance for respiratory viruses
A/Prof Bridget Haire, Dr Alexandra Hogan, A/Prof David Muscatello, A/Prof Anthony Newall, A/Prof Holly Seale and Prof James Wood are Chief Investigators to a $4 million Prevention Research Support Program (PRSP) grant led by Dr Jen Kok (Western Sydney Local Health District). Along with colleagues at The Kirby Institute, and other institutions, SPH investigators will contribute to this stream of work focused on resilient surveillance for respiratory viruses with human pandemic or epidemic potential.
Publications
Dr Lisa Sharwood published an Invited Commentary in JAMA, following an invitation from the Editor, titled AI Use for Injury Surveillance in Emergency Departments.
