Viral hepatitis leader and epidemiological modelling program selected as finalists in the 2024 Australian Museum Eureka Prizes
Monash Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences researchers are among 55 finalists in the prestigious 2024 Australian Museum Eureka Prizes, the country’s most comprehensive national science awards honouring excellence in research and innovation, leadership, science engagement, and school science.
Professor Joseph Doyle from the Department of Infectious Diseases in the School of Translational Medicine is a finalist in the category of Emerging Leader In Science, recognised for his work in striving to eliminate viral hepatitis through innovative models of care. The Epidemiological Modelling Unit (EMU), led by Associate Professor James Trauer in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, is also a finalist in the category of Infectious Diseases Research due to its computational systems that provide real-time, data-informed modelling to forecast disease spread and inform public health responses.
Monash Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences Deputy Dean Research, Professor James Whisstock, congratulated Professor Doyle and the Epidemiological Modelling Unit on their achievements. “I’m delighted to see the dedication and exceptional impact of these outstanding researchers recognised by their selection as finalists in the Eureka Prizes”, he said.
Winners will be announced at a ceremony on Wednesday September 4 at a ceremony held at Sydney Town Hall. A live stream of the awards will also be available online. To register visit australian.museum/eurekaprizes.
Learn more about their projects.
The 2024 Australian Museum Eureka Prize Finalists In Leadership
Eureka Prize for Emerging Leader in Science - Professor Joseph Doyle
Professor Doyle leads a cross-disciplinary program of clinical researchers, implementation scientists, policy experts and community peers that develop interventions to enhance hepatitis testing, care, and treatment. His research has far-reaching health and knowledge impacts for 300 million people globally and 310,000 Australians living with viral hepatitis. Professor Doyle has demonstrated leadership in viral hepatitis clinical innovation by generating evidence for important clinical innovations with global reach, and world-first empirical evidence for population-level elimination through treatment scale-up. Professor Doyle’s leadership of World Health Organization evidence synthesis has also developed global hepatitis C virus guidelines that have changed the treatment paradigm to recommend treatment for everyone. He is also President of the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases and President of Hepatitis Australia.
The 2024 Australian Museum Eureka Prize Finalists In Research and Innovation
Australian Infectious Diseases Research Centre Eureka Prize for Infectious Diseases Research - Epidemiological Modelling Unit
Led by Associate Professor James Trauer, the Epidemiological Modelling Unit (EMU) is renowned for its impactful research in infectious diseases, particularly in COVID-19 modelling. The unit was at the forefront of deploying modelling to support evidence-based policy in controlling the spread of COVID-19, both locally in Victoria and across the Asia-Pacific. EMU’s work has also been pivotal in understanding COVID-19 epidemiology and informing evidence-based policies. In Victoria, the team’s model projections and policy briefs were crucial during the major epidemic waves in 2020 and 2021, and EMU provided health service capacity estimates that supported preparedness and planning through these periods. EMU also supported the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Western Pacific and Southeast Asia Regional Offices by providing modelling projections of COVID-19 case numbers and service capacity needs for countries including Malaysia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar. These projects were provided to local public health agencies to support preparedness and guide policies for lockdowns and vaccination programs. Through these projects, EMU also developed open-source, bespoke software to support transparent and robust infectious disease modelling. This was leveraged to conduct capacity programs in infectious disease modelling for Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam from 2023 to 2024, in collaboration with WHO.
About Monash University
Monash University is Australia’s largest university with more than 80,000 students. In the 60 years since its foundation, it has developed a reputation for world-leading high-impact research, quality teaching, and inspiring innovation.
With four campuses in Australia and a presence in Malaysia, China, India, Indonesia and Italy, it is one of the most internationalised Australian universities.
As a leading international medical research university with the largest medical faculty in Australia and integration with leading Australian teaching hospitals, we consistently rank in the top 50 universities worldwide for clinical, pre-clinical and health sciences.
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