Professor Jodie McVernon is a physician with subspecialty qualifications in public health and vaccinology. She has extensive expertise in clinical vaccine trials, epidemiologic studies and mathematical modelling of infectious diseases, gained at the University of Oxford, Health Protection Agency London and The University of Melbourne. Her work focuses on the application of a range of cross-disciplinary methodological approaches including mathematical and computational models, to synthesise insights from basic biology, epidemiological data and sociological research. These models advance understanding of the observed epidemiology of infectious diseases and inform understanding of optimal interventions for disease control.
Jodie’s Ph.D. studies at Oxford, London on resurgence of Haemophilus influenza type b disease among vaccinated children directly informed UK immunisation policy. She returned to Australia in 2004 and went on to establish a Modelling and Simulation Unit at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, and since 2015, leads a nationally distributed National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Centre of Research Excellence in Infectious Diseases Modelling. Her unit’s work on influenza and pertussis has been translated into national and international infectious diseases policy through engagement with the Australian Government Office of Health Protection, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation and World Health Organization. ice platforms.
