Associate Professor James Trauer

Associate Professor Trauer is Head of Epidemiological Modelling at the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine (SPHPM). He leads a multi-disciplinary team with skills spanning mathematics, epidemiology, data science and software development to provide policy-relevant modelling analyses to public health agencies across the Asia-Pacific Region.

Having previously focused on tuberculosis modelling, his team pivoted to support the pandemic response from early in 2020. Supported by the World Health Organization (WHO), the team supported countries of our region that include the Philippines, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Bhutan, as well as the domestic health departments of Victoria and the Northern Territory. In particular, the team has worked continuously with the Philippines Department of Health and the Malaysian Ministry of Health since the start of the pandemic, playing a major role in ensuring evidence-based public health policy in these countries. James’ research applies the practice of data science to contemporary public health policy questions, leveraging the increasingly dazzling array of computational tools available from this field to underpin his epidemiological analyses.

James’ research is supported by a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award fellow from the Australian Research Council, prior to which he was a NHMRC Early Career Fellow. In addition to the WHO, James has led major grants from the NHMRC and MRFF. James was a 2021 Victorian Tall Poppy, a finalist in the 2022 Australia Museum’s Eureka Awards and was SPHPM’s Henry Krum Awardee for mid-career excellence.

Since the start of the pandemic, James has been a leading voice on COVID-19 epidemiology and control, having undertaken over 300 media interview in outlets that include the Age, ABC Radio National, 7News, Nine News, der Spiegel, BBC World Service, the Australian Financial Review, SBS, the Guardian, the Australian and the Associated Press. Throughout the peak pandemic periods, James was interviewed weekly by the West Live, the Age, ABC Radio Gippsland.

In addition to his public health research, James is a respiratory, sleep and general physician, practising with the Alfred Hospital’s statewide Cystic Fibrosis. He has an interest in respiratory infections, including mycobacterial lung infections and has practised for many years in general medicine, behavioural sleep medicine and clinical tuberculosis management.