Our people

Our institute is comprised of central organisation structure with a core executive, a multidisciplinary advisory board and node leaders. 

The Institute's Director guides our strategic thinking, key partnerships and outputs. 

Professor Ben Marais is an Infectious Diseases Consultant at the Children's Hospital Westmead. His primary research interest is tuberculosis (epidemiology, strain diversity/evolution, diagnosis, prevention, treatment, drug resistance) with a special focus on how children are affected by the global epidemic. He has a keen interest in international child health; including HIV, TB/HIV, paediatric and emerging infections in general, as well as operations and cross-disciplinary research. 

Our Deputy Director (acting) Professor Jamie Triccas is a bacteriologist who uses a multidisciplinary approach to define immunity to chronic bacterial pathogens and develop new treatments to control infection. He is a Professor of Medical Microbiology and Group Leader in the Infection, Immunity and Inflammation Theme in the School of Medical Sciences at the University of Sydney. He has over 25 years’ experience working with pathogens and has published widely on aspects of bacterial pathogenesis, immunity to infection and vaccine development and testing.

Associate Director (Strategy, Operations & Partnerships)

Dr Jocelyne Basseal leads the strategic development of the Institute and fosters local, national and global partnerships. She is a graduate from the University of Sydney with a PhD in Medical Microbiology and has supervised post-graduate students, delivered lectures, organised scientific conferences and published in peer-reviewed journals and textbooks. After leaving academia, Jocelyne spent 8 years as the Managing Editor, Research and Policy Manager for the Australasian Society for Ultrasound in Medicine. With strong governance knowledge, skills in policy development and communication, Jocelyne was instrumental in advocating for best practices in Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) for medical imaging. During this time, Jocelyne was a consultant for commercial companies as an IPC advisor and delivered educational workshops, supported medical associations with their peer-reviewed journals and developed the research grants scheme for a philanthropic organisation. Since April 2020, Jocelyne worked as an IPC consultant for the World Health Organisation’s COVID-19 response supporting low-middle income countries in the Western Pacific Region. She is currently the President for the Australasian Medical Writers Association, an active member of the Standards Australia HE-023 committee and facilitating IPC guideline development for Radiology Across Borders.

Centre Manager

Mrs Christine Aitken has been with the Centre for over 11 years, establishing and running the operations of the institute.