Our people

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

Co-Director

The Institute's Co-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.

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.

Institute leaders

Research Steering Group members

Node leaders

Flagship Advisory Board members

Theme leaders

Research Steering Group members

Our Research Steering Group reviews the scope of academic activities undertaken by the Institute and provides strategic and tactical advice. Our members represent the various faculties, cross-cutting themes and research pillars of the Institute.

Tania Sorrell, Co-Chair
Ben Marais, Co-Chair
Jan-Willem Alffenaar, Pharmacy
Alex Broom, Arts and Social Sciences
Dee Carter, Life and Environment Sciences
Tony Cunningham, Sydney Medical School
Greg Fox, Sydney Medical School
David Guest, Sydney Institute of Agriculture
Peter Hockey, Sydney Medical School
Eddie Holmes School of Medical Sciences/Science
Jon Iredell, Sydney Medical School
Julie Leask, Nursing and Midwifery
Kristine Macartney, National Centre for Immunisation Research & Surveillance (NCIRS)
Kirsten McCaffery, Public Health
Jacqui Norris, Veterinary Science
Richard Payne, Chemistry
Mikhail Prokopenko, Engineering
Shailendra Sawleshwarkar, Sydney Medical School
Ramon Shaban, Nursing & Midwifery
Tom Snelling, Public Health
Vitali Sintchenko, School of Medical Sciences
Jamie Triccas, School of Medical Sciences
Nick Wood, Sydney Medical School
Ruth Zadoks, Veterinary Science

Node leaders

Node leader(s)	Node
Dr Phil Britton	Brain Infection and Inflammation: Researching better treatments and prevention strategies to deal with infections and immunological disorders affecting the brain and nervous system.
Dr Justin Beardsley	FungiSphere: Research in fungal biology, ecology and epidemiology, food security, pathogenesis and antimicrobial resistance.
Professor Robert Booy A/Prof Harunor Rashid	Mass-Gathering Medicine: Researching transmission of bacterial and viral pathogens and vaccine effectiveness, with implications for policy interventions to protect personal and public health.
Dr Michael Walsh A/Prof Katrina Bosward Prof Ruth Zadoks	One Health: Research on zoonotic and other infectious diseases, their impacts on human and animal health and their social, ecological and environmental determinant.
Professor Ramon Shaban Professor Lyn Gilbert	Infection Prevention and Disease Control: Researching ways to improve health outcomes and health service delivery with respect to infectious diseases, infection prevention and disease control, and associated disciplines locally, nationally and internationally through leading, facilitating and evaluating quality research that develops new knowledge and advances in research and clinical practice.