Dr James MacGibbon

James MacGibbon (he/him) is a social and behavioural scientist researching HIV prevention and sexual health with gay and bisexual men, other men who have sex with men and queer people. He works across several projects at the Centre for Social Research in Health:

• As lead investigator of an Australian mpox/monkeypox study titled Responding to monkeypox virus among gay and bisexual men in Australia (RE:MPXV). The first part of this project comprised a national online survey of gay, bisexual and queer people in Australia about monkeypox concern, behavioural change and willingness to be vaccinated against mpox. The second part of the project, funded by a Triple I UNSW Seed grant, comprises qualitative interviews of people diagnosed with mpox, close contacts, and health professionals. The interviews will explore clinical care and support for people diagnosed with monkeypox and help to understand the social implications of mpox testing, diagnosis and clinical management.
• As lead investigator for The PrEPARE Project, a cross-sectional study of gay, bisexual and queer men’s attitudes to biomedical HIV prevention strategies, such as HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and HIV treatment as prevention, and attitudes to condoms.
• As the project coordinator for the Gay Community Periodic Surveys (GCPS) NHMRC Partnership Project, Enhancing behavioural surveillance to address gaps and disparities in Australia’s HIV response in a changing HIV epidemic. This project aims to test and expand behavioural HIV surveillance of gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (MSM) to respond to the changing HIV epidemic in Australia. 
• As an associate investigator on the TraX Study (Tracking the community response to monkeypox), a study of monkeypox vaccine uptake and real-world vaccine effectiveness.
• As a chief investigator on the Trust in Digital Health Study, a project conducted in collaboration with community organisations that examined attitudes to digital health platforms, and trust in and use of digital technologies to manage health. The study compared attitudes of the general population to attitudes of the priority populations in the current national BBV/STI strategies: people with HIV, trans and gender diverse people, sex workers, and gay and bisexual men.

James completed his mixed-methods PhD in November 2022. His doctoral research examined the social effects of new biomedical HIV prevention technology – antiretroviral medication used to prevent HIV – on gay, bisexual and queer-identifying men's relationships.