Cheneal Puljevic

Dr Cheneal Puljevic is a UQ Amplify Senior Research Fellow at the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence on Achieving the Tobacco Endgame at the School of Public Health, where she leads the ITTOD Research Program. Her research focuses on illicit markets for legal commodities, particularly tobacco and alcohol, and the implications of these markets for public health, regulation, and enforcement. Her current program of work, funded by an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellowship (2023–2026), examines the drivers and deterrents of illicit tobacco use in Australia. Her broader research interests include drug checking (pill testing), alcohol-fuelled violence, and harm reduction responses to substance use.

Cheneal is also the Bachelor of Health Sciences Honours program director and course convenor, the Deputy Director of the School of Public Health's Research and Research Training Committee, a core research team member for the Global Drug Survey, an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Drug Policy, a Deputy Editor for Drug and Alcohol Review, and a volunteer (and former Queensland Research Lead) for The Loop Australia.

Cheneal was previously employed as the Research Operations Manager for the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence on Achieving the Tobacco Endgame (2021-2022) and as a Research Fellow (2018-2022) at the Global Substance Use and Mental Health unit at the Centre for Health Services Research.

She completed her PhD in 2018 at Griffith Criminology Institute at Griffith University, with her thesis focusing on smoking cessation among people who have experienced incarceration. She completed an Honours degree in Psychology at the University of Cape Town in 2011, with her thesis focusing on screening and brief interventions for alcohol-related injuries at an emergency centre.

Cheneal is currently not available to take on further students for supervision.