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Dr Yibeltal Assefa Alemu (MD, MSc, PhD): is an Associate Professor of Global Health Systems at the School of Public Health. His research program focuses on Global Health, Health Systems, and Primary Health Care towards Universal Health Coverage and Global Health Security. He coordinates two courses on Health Systems (postgraduate) and Global Health & Infectious Diseases (undergraduate).

Before joining the University of Queensland in 2016, he had substantial experience in policy, program, and implementation of disease control programs (DCPs) and health systems at National and Global levels. He has also been involved in the development of implementation and treatment guidelines as well as monitoring and evaluation frameworks of DCPs at National and Global levels since 2007. He led and conducted national surveys, surveillances, and evaluations of DCPs in Ethiopia and other sub-Saharan African countries. He has also gained health systems and disease control program relevant experiences over a range of duties:

2013 – 2016: Deputy Director General, Ethiopian Public Health Institute, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Coordinated national surveys, surveillance, and program evaluations on disease control programs, health systems, and nutrition and food science; supervised PhD and MPH students from Europe and Ethiopia; and, examine PhD and MPH theses.

2015 – 2016: Executive Director of the International Institute for Primary Health Care, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Established the International Institute for Primary Health Care, in collaboration with the John Hopkins University-School of Public Health; developed its plan and organizational structure; and recruited its staff.

2010 –2013: Director of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Federal HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office, Ethiopia: Coordinated the development of strategic and operational plans, and designed a monitoring and evaluation system for the multi-sectoral response of HIV/AIDS in the country, organize review and dissemination workshops.

2008 –2010: Director of Medical Services, Federal Ministry of Health, Ethiopia: Coordinated the design and implementation of health systems and services, hospital and primary health care reform, including emergency medical systems in the country.

2006 – 2008: Head of the Health Programs Department, Federal HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office, Ethiopia: Coordinated the health sector response of HIV/AIDS and other STIs; developed guidelines and training manuals; and coordinated training and mentorship program in the country.

2002 – 2005: Medical Director, Humera District Hospital, Ethiopia: Managed the inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes of the hospital.

2001 – 2005: General Medical Practitioner, Humera District Hospital, Ethiopia: Provided clinical services at out-patient and in-patient departments.

He has published several academic papers in peer-reviewed journals; led the development and publication of 10 national guidelines and training manuals focusing on HIV/AIDS and TB; and participated in the development of more than five global guidelines on HIV/AIDS and TB. His publications have been contributing significantly in the response against HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia and other resource-limited settings. These publications are also highly referred by other publications, including the WHO guidelines. He has served on key international panels since 2007: the WHO consolidated guidelines for ARV use, 2015; Technical Evaluation Reference Group for the Global Fund (2012-2015); Core Group for the development of the patient monitoring system for the WHO consolidated guidelines for ARV use (2013-14); Advisory group for the development of guidelines for task shifting for HIV treatment (2007).

Dr Alemu has also been an invited plenary speaker in different global health meetings: Surveillance of HIV/AIDS; UNAIDS/WHO; Bangkok, Thailand, 2015; Translating Research into Policy and Practice: issues, challenges and recommendations; Ministry of Health of Ethiopia; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2014; The multi-sectoral response for the AIDS epidemic in Ethiopia; Ethiopian Public Health Association, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2012; The role of community health workers for ART delivery: successes and challenges; ITM colloquium, Antwerp, Belgium, 2011; Human resource aspects of ART delivery in resource-limited settings; Geneva health forum, Geneva, Switzerland, 2010; The effect of AIDS programs on the health system: opportunities and challenges; World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, 2008; Task shifting to scale up ART delivery in Ethiopia: World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, 2007.

Associate Professor Annika Antonsson is a virologist with epidemiological training. Viruses can cause cancer, and Annika’s research has been focused on human papillomavirus (HPV) and its role in different types of cancer. HPV is the virus that causes cervical cancer.

Her current main research areas are oral HPV infections in the general population and HPV in mouth and throat cancer (mucosal squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck; HNSCC).

Some cancers of the mouth and throat are increasing and some of this increase is caused by HPV infection. HPV is a sexually transmitted infection and changing sexual behaviour is believed to have caused the increase in HPV-positive tumours of the mouth and throat. Annika is investigating how often HPV in found in HNSCCs and if there are any lifestyle factors linked with having HPV or not to have HPV in tumours.

It is not known how common the potentially cancer-causing viruses are in the mouth of the general population, and this is another area of research Annika is looking into. She has also worked on HPV in skin (normal skin and cancer), infections in breast carcinogenesis, HPV in oesophageal cancer and polyomaviruses in normal skin and skin cancer.

A/Prof Federica Barzi is a Principal Research Fellow in Biostatistics at the UQ Poche Centre for Indigenous Health and within the Faculty of Health and Behavioral Sciences at The University of Queensland. She was awarded a PhD in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Sydney University in 2004 and has a BSc degree in Statistics from the University of Padova, Italy.

A/Prof Barzi is an applied Biostatistician with extensive experience on study design and data analysis of randomized clinical trials, very large observational studies and data linkage. She has worked across a variety of specialties including cardiology, nephrology, nutrition, oncology and emergency care. She has been involved in Indigenous Health since 2005 and from April 2014, with her appointment at the Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin, A/Prof Barzi’s contribution to research focuses solely on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health. She has co-authored over a hundred and thirty peer reviewed journal articles with colleagues from various institutions and has secured, as a CI, over 24M in research funding since 2006.

Dr. Manuela Besomi is a Research Fellow within the NHMRC Centre of Clinical Research Excellence in Spinal Pain, Injury & Health and the Sports Injury Rehabilitation and Prevention for Health (SIRPH) Research Unit at The University of Queensland. She also holds an honorary position in the Physiotherapy Department at Universidad del Desarrollo (Chile), where she leads a clinical team focused on running injury management and prevention research. Manuela obtained her master's degree in Clinical Epidemiology from Universidad de La Frontera, Chile, in 2016, followed by a Ph.D. in Rehabilitation Sciences at The University of Queensland in 2021. As a passionate physiotherapist and early career researcher, she brings expertise in epidemiology, musculoskeletal rehabilitation, and sports science, particularly in the context of running. Her research spans fundamental and applied areas, from leveraging innovative technologies to investigate tissue mechanics to enhancing care management through implementation research.

Manuela is currently the Project Coordinator of an NIH-funded research project, the largest human project at UQ across 8 universities and 5 hospitals in 3 countries, examining the bio-psycho-social mechanisms underlying low back pain flares. She is also the Research Coordinator for the Consensus for Experimental Design in Electromyography (CEDE) project, supported and endorsed by the International Society of Electrophysiology and Kinesiology (ISEK). In recognition of her contributions, she was honoured with the prestigious 2022 Carlo J. DeLuca Award.

Beyond her research endeavours, Manuela is dedicated to translating knowledge into practice and actively engages with the community. She is a speaker and collaborator at The Running Clinic and a co-founder of the SeRUN® project (@serun.chile), both initiatives aimed at bridging the gap between research and clinical practice. She is passionate about promoting STEM for young girls—having collaborated in the evaluation of a nationwide program to boost girls' engagement in STEM, BRInC. Currently, she is part of the research team and mentor for the 2024 BRInC version. More information about BRInC can be found at https://www.canberra.edu.au/about-uc/faculties/health/brinc.

Dr. Besomi remains committed to advancing knowledge and making a positive impact in the fields of physiotherapy, rehabilitation and sports science.

Dr Claudia Bull is a Research Fellow in psychiatric epidemiology at the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research (QCMHR), University of Queensland. She holds a Bachelor of Nutrition with First Class Honours (2017) and a PhD in Health Services Research from the Griffith University School of Nursing and Midwifery (2022). Claudia's research largely focusses on undertaking complex data analysis using large, linked, population-based administrative datasets to understand equity, patterns of health service use, and outcomes in vulnerable Australian populations. She is particularly interested in the intergenerational and lifetime effects of child abuse and neglect in Australia, as well as understanding how health services can better support Child Protection efforts. Claudia is also well-versed in the development, psychometric evaluation and implementation of PROMs and PREMs for health systems performance measurement. She is internationally recognised for her research related to PROMs and PREMs, having published several seminal and highly cited papers, as well as pioneering methods for consumer engagement in deciding what questions are relevant and important in PROMs and PREMs. Claudia is an inaugural member of the South Australian Commission on Excellence and Innovation in Health's Generic PROM Selection Subcommittee, and is currently collaborating internationally with researchers in The Netherlands, Iran, France and Spain to cross-culturally validate an Emergency Department PREM. Claudia's expertise in population-based linked administrative health data analysis, as well as PROMs and PREMs, positions her as a well-rounded and capable researcher. Claudia's international collaborations underscore her ability to work across cultural and geographical boundaries, enriching her research with a global perspective. Moreover, her track record of published research, practical involvement in healthcare initiatives, and ongoing projects reflect a proactive and influential presence in the field.

Professor John Cairney is the Head of School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences. He is an academic leader in the field of paediatric exercise medicine and child health research and is particularly well-known for his work on developmental coordination disorder (DCD) and its impact on the health and well-being of children. Prof John Cairney started at UQ in January 2020.

Until the end of 2019, he was the Director of Graduate Studies in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education at the University of Toronto and Director of the Infant and Child Health (INCH) Research Laboratory at both the University of Toronto and McMaster University. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Departments of Public Health Sciences and Psychiatry at the University of Toronto and Department of Family Medicine at McMaster University and a core scientist with the Offord Centre for Child Studies, CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research at McMaster University, and the independent Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences.

Professor Cairney completed his PhD studies at the University of Western Ontario and has held academic appointments at Brock University, the University of Toronto and McMaster University before his current UQ role. He has held, among other research leadership positions, a Canada Research Chair in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, and a Professorship in Child Health, and subsequently a Research Chair, in the Department of Family Medicine at McMaster University.

Professor Cairney has been the recipient of ~$A17 million in research grants as a principal investigator and has some 310 published works with a Scopus h index of 51 (Aug 2022).

Professor Cairney is a former President of the North American Society of Pediatric Exercise Medicine.

Dr. Gary Chan is a NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow at the National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research. His principal research interest lies in the field of substance misuse prevention and the application of cutting-edge statistical method for longitudinal analysis and causal inference. His recent publications have been focused on polysubstance use (including alcohol, tobacco and cannabis) profiles in adolescent populations, examinations of urban-rural differences in substance use, and the epidemiology of alcohol, tobacco and cannabis use. He collaborates extensively with leading researchers in major national and international institutes, including the University of Washington, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, University of Melbourne, and University College London. He has also served as a consultant at the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime to improve exisitng methods for monitoring global trends of illicit substance production, trafficking and use. This work has made significant impact on how global data will be collected, and these new data will be used by the United nations and many national governments to inform drug policy decision making. He is a Deputy Statistical and Methodology Editor for the journal Addiction.

Dr. Chan is also a statistical advisor at the School of Psychology, providing statistical advice to academic staff and RHD students. Since 2016, he has also delivered several advanced statistcal workshops at the School on R and statistical modelling.

Dr Hsin-Fang Chung is an epidemiologist and Research Fellow at the Australian Women and Girls’ Health Research Centre, School of Public Health. She is also an adjunct Collaborative Researcher at the Gunma University Initiative for Advanced Research (GIAR), Gunma University (2024-). Prior to this, Hsin-Fang completed her PhD on lifestyle and genetic risk factors of diabetic complications at UQ in 2015. She has a multidisciplinary educational background, spanning nursing, nutrition, public health, and epidemiology, and has worked in clinical and non-clinical sectors. Chung held UQ Research Stimulus Fellowship (2021-2022) and UQ Promoting Women Fellowship (2022).

Dr Chung has a track record of applying quantitative and modelling skills in women's health epidemiology. She has published more than 45 peer-reviewed publications and two book chapters. Hsin-Fang’s research focuses on women’s reproductive history (i.e., menarche, menstrual disorders, endometriosis, fertility issues, pregnancy complications, and menopause) in relation to chronic diseases in later life, particularly cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. She uses high-quality data pooling from multiple epidemiological, cohort, and data-linkage studies in the InterLACE consortium to tackle critical knowledge gaps and inform practice and policy to develop long-term monitoring strategies for women with adverse reproductive histories. Her research pays particular attention to priority groups, including women from culturally and linguistically diverse communities.

An ecologist by training – I hold a B.Sc. (Hons) in Marine Ecology from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington and a Ph.D. in Ecological Modelling from Griffith University. I am broadly interested in exploring new ways to (1) understand how natural communities are formed and (2) predict how they will change over time. As an Amplify Fellow at UQ, my current research focuses on developing computational tools and adapting techniques from epidemiology and statistical forecasting to study how organisms and ecosystems respond to environmental change. This work is being applied to investigate natural dynamics for a range of natural systems including host-parasite interactions, wildlife populations and veterinary diseases.

I am an active member of the R community and have written and/or maintain several popular R packages. For example, I’m a lead developer on the MRFcov package for multivariate conditional random fields analyses. I also wrote the mvgam R package for fitting dynamic Generalised Additive Models to analyse and forecast multivariate ecological time series, and I regularly provide training seminars and workshops to help researchers learn techniques in ecological data analysis.

I am currently seeking Honours and PhD candidates with interests and/or skills in veterinary epidemiology, spatial / spatiotemporal modeling and quantitative ecology.

Dr. Adam Craig is an infectious disease epidemiologist and global health system researcher. He has more than 25 years of experience in health, having worked across and with Australian, Asian and Pacific health authorities. Among other areas, his research explores the use of digital technology to support health information collection and exchange and how technology may support improved health system function. Other projects Adam is involved in include the development of policy advice for Pacific leaders related to enhanced early warning disease surveillance, the use of digital technology to support health care delivery and community participation in disease vector tracking. In addition to his academic roles, Adam is a senior advisor to the Australia-Indonesia Health Security Partnership and a researcher for the Asia Pacific Observatory on Health Systems and Policies.

Dr Darsy Darssan is an Accredited Professional Statistician® (PStat®) and a Fellow of Higher Education Academy (FHEA). He obtained three degrees in Statistics at mathematical sciences schools of three different universities: a Bachelor of Science with Honours in 2005 at University of Jaffna, a Master of Applied Science in 2008 at RMIT University and a Doctor of Philosophy in 2014 at Queensland University of Technology.

While doing his two years full time traditional face-to-face master degree, Darsy worked as a part-time Statistician at Australian Council for Educational Research for a year.

Between the two bouts of postgraduate studies, Darsy worked for two years: as a Statistician at the University of New South Wales for a year and another year as an Associate Research Fellow in Applied Statistics at the University of Wollongong.

While doing the highest degree in Statistics Darsy worked as a sessional academic, contributed to teaching introductory statistics to various cohorts of first-year undergraduate students. Upon completion of the doctoral degree, Darsy moved to the University of Liverpool in the UK to do his Postdoctoral research in Biostatistics. Darsy returned home in late 2015 and worked as a Biostatistician at The University of Queensland for three years before taking the current position.

Career Statistician:

As a career statistician, Darsy is interested in developing or extending statistical methodologies to solve problems that arise in real-world data analysis and data collection in Biomedical research.

Service Statistician:

Darsy has experience working as a service statistician. He mainly worked on clinical trials where he was involved in study designs, randomisation, protocols development, statistical analysis plans, final statistical reports. He actively participated in data safety monitoring boards. Darsy provided statistical service to Biologists, Rheumatologists, Ophthalmologists, Nephrologist, Endocrinologist and Health Service Researchers.

Teaching @ UQ:

Post-graduate teaching

Introduction to Biostatistics (PUBH7630)

Under-graduate teaching

Health Data Analysis (PUBH2007)

My research concerns i) understanding causes and impacts of hearing impairment, particularly in the context of multimorbidity in older age, ii) prevention and treatment of hearing impairment, and iii) hearing service development and evaluation. My research involves epidemiological modelling with population data sets, clinical trials and hearing health policy. I have authored over130 publications in peer reviewed journals and books, and I frequently present invited and keynote addresses at international conferences. I have received the British Society of Audiology’s TS Littler prize for services to audiology and a prestigious US-UK Fulbright award.

I have been awarded 10 grants as principal investigator in the last 5 years totalling >AUD$14.5 million from competitive sources including the NHMRC, the NIHR, the Alzheimer’s Society UK, the European Commission, industry and charity funders. This funding includes an EU Horizon 2020 grant of €6.2 million (as joint PI for “Ears, Eyes and Mind: The “SENSE-Cog Project” to improve mental well-being for elderly Europeans with sensory impairment”), and two NHMRC Medical Research Future Fund awards ($1.2 million as CI for “SENSEcog aged care: Hearing and vision support to improve quality of life for people living with dementia in residential aged care”; AUD$1.3 million for "Home hearing and vision care to improve quality of life for people with dementia and carers"; and an AUD$0.9 million NHMRC targetted hearing research award (as CI for "Improving access to the hearing services program for people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds"). I have strong links with hearing industry partners and have received research funding (total >AUD$500,000) from major hearing aid companies Starkey, Oticon, Phonak and the hearing industry research consortium. I have a position at the University of Manchester with on-going involvement (as CI and co-I) in projects funded by the NIHR, the ESRC, the Alzheimer’s Society and the RNID.

Dr Tracey Di Sipio is a teaching and research academic in the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Division of the School of Public Health. Dr Di Sipio is an experienced cancer epidemiologist with a focus on women’s cancers, caregivers, and health equity.

Sandra Diminic is a Principal Research Fellow at Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research (QCMHR) and leads the Mental Health Services Research stream. She has qualifications in psychology and public health and her PhD focused on understanding the service needs of carers and families of people with mental illness. Before joining QCMHR Sandra worked on the Australian Schizophrenia Research Bank and interned in Mental Health Policy and Service Development at the World Health Organization; she has also been a visiting scholar at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto.

Sandra's research aims to reduce the population burden of mental illness through understanding demand for and utilisation of mental health services, identifying and evaluating evidence-based mental health service models, and applying these findings to improve mental health systems and services. This research program involves close collaboration with health system partners such as national and state governments, Primary Health Networks and community organisations to provide evidence and advice to support integrated regional and national mental health service planning. Her current major project is development and application of the National Mental Health Service Planning Framework (NMHSPF), a needs-based planning tool which models population needs and required packages of care to produce resource targets for optimal mental health service delivery in Australia. Sandra also leads projects drawing on population surveys and health service administrative data to understand current mental health service delivery and identify service gaps for specific regions and populations.

Dr Amalie Dyda is an infectious disease epidemiologist working as a teaching and research academic in the School of Public Health. In 2009 she completed a Master of Applied Epidemiology at the Australian National University, followed by a PhD investigating vaccine preventable diseases in adults at the University of New South Wales in 2017. She has experience working as a field epidemiologist in numerous health departments throughout Australia and has research experience in infectious diseases, data linkage and public health informatics. She is currently working on projects investigating the use of technology and machine learning methods to assist the public health response to infectious diseases, and links between social media use and health. Additionally, Amalie does a lot of work to improve gender equity in health and medical research, including working as part of the peer advisory committee for Franklin Women.

David Evans is an NHMRC Leadership Fellow and Professor of Statistical Genetics at the University of Queensland Institute for Molecular Bioscience. He is a winner of the NHMRC Marshall and Warren Award.

He completed his PhD in Statistical Genetics at the University of Queensland in 2003, before undertaking a four-year post-doctoral fellowship at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford where he worked as part of the The International HapMap Consortium and co-led the analysis of four diseases within the first Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium. In 2007 he moved to take up a Senior Lecturer position at the University of Bristol where he led much of the genome-wide association studies work in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). In 2013 he returned to take up a chair at the University of Queensland whilst continuing to lead an MRC Programme in statistical genetics at the University of Bristol.

His research interests include the genetic mapping of complex traits and diseases (including birthweight and other perinatal traits, osteoporosis, ankylosing spondylitis, sepsis, laterality) and the development of statistical methodologies in genetic epidemiology including approaches for gene mapping, individual risk prediction, causal modelling and dissecting the genetic architecture of complex traits. He has a particular interest in Mendelian randomization and has used it and other causal methods to investigate the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD)- the idea that adverse intrauterine exposures lead to increased risk of disease in later life.

He is Academic Codirector at the NIH funded International Workshop on Statistical Genetics Methods and is faculty on the European Programme in Educational Epidemiology.

He is Associate Editor at the International Journal of Epidemiology and Behavior Genetics journals.

Associate Professor Fatima is a Pharmacist, Epidemiologist, Sleep Scientist, and the Research Lead of the “Let’s Yarn About Sleep” program. Fatima's research aims to reduce the societal burden of poor sleep and associated health issues through coordinated multidisciplinary, translational research and co-designed programs and service models. She is nationally recognised for leadership in co-designing sleep health programs, workforce training frameworks and service delivery models to improve sleep health care in First Nations communities.

In response to community-identified needs and service gaps, A/Prof Fatima partnered with community members and service providers to co-develop a "ground-up" sleep health movement now known as the Let’s Yarn About Sleep (LYAS) program. The partnership discussions were initiated in late 2018 and involved extensive discussion with community Elders and key stakeholders from the partner organisations. These discussions helped understand partners' priorities, facilitated a shared understanding of decision-making processes, identified knowledge and resource-sharing strategies, and underpinned the program's co-development. The LYAS program has significantly improved community awareness and appreciation of sleep health and created pathways for sleep health integration for effective prevention and management of chronic conditions.

The LYAS program is transforming the way the sleep health needs of First Nations peoples are assessed and addressed. The program innovation lies in building local capacity, privileging First Nations voices, empowering end-users, integrating two-world views, interdisciplinary expertise, and diverse research methodologies. These efforts resulted in the UQ-led delivery of Australia’s first Indigenous Sleep Coach training, research roles for community members, and integration of sleep health programs in remote schools and health services. The team is now collaborating with 11 communities to strengthen local capacity and capability for achieving sleep health equity and minimise the human, societal and economic costs associated with poor sleep. Furthermore, many other communities and services in Queensland have invited the team for workforce training and sleep health care for First Nations peoples.

Dr Alize Ferrari leads the Epidemiology and Burden of Disease Research Stream at the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research. This stream undertakes a program of work featuring the collection of new epidemiological data for mental disorders, analysis of existing data to quantify the distribution of mental disorders, quantification of the fatal and non-fatal consequences of mental disorders, and the development of methodological frameworks to improve the precision at which we collect and analyse epidemiological data. Dr Ferrari is an Affiliate Professor of Global Health at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), University of Washington, and an Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Public Health, University of Queensland. She is the Team Lead for the Mental Disorders Research Team within the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study. The GBD initiative is led by IHME and quantifies health loss from over 350 causes. She is the Primary Investigator on the Queensland Urban Indigenous Mental Health Survey. This is a population-based mental health survey of adult Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in Southeast Queensland. It will determine the prevalence of mental and substance use disorders, mental health services being accessed, and implications for service reform.

Professor Jason Ferris, is the Director of Research and Statistical Support Services (RASSS), University of Queensland. While providing service primarily to the Faculty of Medicine the service is expanding to support other organisation units. He is also a leading research academic at the Centre for Health Services Research (CHSR) where he is the Program Leader for Global Substance Use and Mental Health (GSUMH) unit. He holds an honorary professorial role at Turning Point, Victoria (2018-) and is also the Chief Data Scientist for the Global Drug Survey (2013-). Since 2019 he has held a ministerial appointment as an Advisory Council Member to the Queensland Mental Health Commission and is an interRAI Fellow (interrai.org).

Since 2020, Professor Jason Ferris, in collaboration with Dr Dom Gorse (Director of QCIF Data Science) and many others across QCIF and UQ, have been working on the development and deployment of UQ KeyPoint - an innovative data infrastructure, data governance and digital solution enabling researchers to access, manage, analyse and share sensitive research data in a scalable, fully governed and highly secure environment. The work has received a number of accolades. In 2023, The University of Queensland recognised the value of KeyPoint winning the Award for Excellence in Innovation. In 2022, the Faculty of Medicine recognised his commitment and leadership to the University awarding him and the team the Innovators of the Year Award. Professor Ferris has received other recognition as well. In 2021, the Faculty of Medicine recognised the outstanding support of RASSS with a Service Excellence Award. In 2020, The University of Queensland recognised his contributions to his research field: he was awarded the Faculty of Medicine Leader of the Future Award (Academic) and The Director's Choice Award for contributions to the Centre for Health Services Research. In 2019, he was awarded The Outstanding Mid-Career Researcher within the Centre for Health Services Research and was also chosen as a finalist for the Faculty of Medicine Leader of the Future Award (Academic). Additionally, across the Faculty of Medicine, his Research and Statistical Support Service, was nominated for a Service Excellence Award (2019 and 2020). In 2015, he received the University of Queensland, Early Career Researcher Award within the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science. In September, 2014, he received a Highly Commended Early Career Researcher Award within the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science.

He has been involved in a number of key projects: The Queensland Evaluation of the Alcohol Fuelled Violence Policy (QUANTEM), The Overarching Evaluation of the National Support for Child and Youth Mental Health Program (CHYME), the evaluation of ProjectSTOP (a decision-making national database for pharmacists aimed at preventing the use of pseudoephedrine based products as a precursor in the manufacture of methamphetamine), and a national review of the links between random breath testing and alcohol-related road traffic accidents. Jason has over 20 years of social science and public health research experience. He has a well-established publication record with a strong focus on alcohol and drug research and public health. With a Master degree in biostatistics he has well developed and expansive quantitative methods skills and a broad range of experience in many of the facets of both social science and medical research. In 2014 his PhD on alcohol epidemiology was conferred.

Previously, as a senior statistician at the Institute for Social Science Research he developed and taught a number of training models in research methods and statistical analysis as part of the Methods for Social Analysis and Statistics (MFSAS). Since its inception in 2012 he has been course coordinator and trainer for a number of these training modules (see below). From 2016-2018 he was the Director of MFSAS. Between 2016-2017 he was also the ISSR Co-postgraduate Coordinator.