Dear SSA Canberra et al.,

Please see below for details of the next branch meeting. Note the adjusted meeting day, which was necessary to avoid clashing with branches. Also, please note for security reasons, registration to attend the online branch meeting is required beforehand. Details are provided below.

Date: Wednesday 27 May

From 6pm and concluding by 7pm: Presentation on Zoom

Virtual pre-drinks and nibbles are provided, but they probably don't taste as good as the real thing!

Register in advance for this meeting: https://anu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEqd-2hpj0rE9Fv0VOa29Chv19K7qfttC7a
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.. Any questions, please feel free to contact ssacanberra@gmail.com  

Speaker: 

Raina MacIntyre is Head of the Biosecurity Program, Kirby Institute, NHMRC Principal Research Fellow and Professor of Global Biosecurity at UNSW. She runs a strategic research program spanning emerging infections, pandemics, vaccinology, bioterrorism, epidemiology, mathematical modelling, public health and clinical trials in infectious diseases. Her combination of dual specialist medical training (in clinical medicine and public health) and formal academic training in epidemiology and mathematical modelling informs her work in the transmission dynamics and prevention of infectious diseases, particularly respiratory pathogens such as influenza, other vaccine-preventable infections and serious emerging infections. She has led the largest body of clinical research internationally on face masks & respirators. She is an expert in adult vaccination with a focus on the elderly. Specific vaccination interests include influenza, pneumococcal disease, HPV, smallpox, anthrax, herpes zoster, vaccine effectiveness of influenza vaccine against myocardial infarction. She has led a NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in immunisation for high risk populations, a NHMRC funded national network in mathematical modelling, and is Head of UNSW Vaccine and Infection Research Lab (VIRL). She has >350 publications in peer-reviewed journals. Her research is underpinned by extensive field outbreak investigation experience and she is a FETP graduate. She co-founded the ARM network for Australian outbreak response, and has an interest in ethics, specifically in dual-use research of concern and mitigating risk.

Tambri Housen is an epidemiologist and former registered nurse specializing in international health, she currently works as a Senior Research Fellow on the Masters of Philosophy (Applied Epidemiology – MAE) program at the Research School of Population Health at the Australian National University. The MAE program is a TEPHINET (Training Programs in Epidemiology and Public Health Interventions) accredited two-year research degree, founded on the core principle of learn-by-doing and is Australia’s only Field Epidemiology Training Program. Dr Housen has experience in conflict affected and resource limited settings in the areas of field research, project design and management, team leadership, mentorship and capacity building. Her research interests include cross-cultural mixed methods research to inform policy and culturally relevant best practice in health care delivery and research promoting community engagement in evidence-based practice. Tambri is actively involved in strengthening field epidemiology capacity in the Asia-Pacific region through a number of collaborative projects funded by the Commonwealth Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

John Maindonald: Following a first in Mathematics at Auckland University and a variety of teaching and lecturing positions, John Maindonald settled down to working with other researchers as a quantitative problem solver. Until his move from New Zealand to Australia in 1996, much of his work was in plant, fruit and insect and other pest research, with industrial consulting as a sideline. He took up a position at The Australian National University (ANU) in 1998. At ANU he has relished the stimulus of working with biologists (including molecular biologists), ecologists, epidemiologists, public health researchers, demographers, computer scientists, numerical analysts, machine learners, an economic historian, forensic linguists, and a lively group of statisticians. He is the author of a book on Statistical Computation. He is the senior author of "Data Analysis and Graphics Using R". This example-based exposition of practical approaches to data analysis, now into its third edition, has sold more than 10,000 copies. Now in semi-retirement, he continues to take an active interest in issues that arise in practical statistical analysis.

Topic: Discussion on COVID-19

Website link: https://statsoc.org.au/Canberra-Branch-meetings