Welcoming Professor Hilary Bambrick as Director of the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health

Professor Hillary Bambrick, ANU
3 May 2022

We are pleased to welcome Professor Hilary Bambrick as the new Director of the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health (NCEPH).

NCEPH, which was established in 1988 as a centre of excellence in population health that is curiosity-based, agenda-setting and responsive to local, national and international needs, has recently been elevated to School status following restructure of the ANU College of Health and Medicine.

Professor Bambrick is a graduate of Arts/Science and has a PhD in Anthropology from ANU, after which she held the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in Environmental Epidemiology at NCEPH, working with the late Professor Tony McMichael.

In 2007 Professor Bambrick joined Western Sydney University to develop the innovative population health curriculum at their new medical school, becoming Chair of Population Health in 2015, and in 2017 she took up the role of Head of the School of Public Health and Social Work at Queensland University of Technology, which she held until late 2021.

Her research on climate and health has ranged in scale from small community-led projects to large, multi-nation strategies for health systems resilience. She has worked in urban, rural and remote communities in Australia and the ASEAN region, was appointed to the Climate Council in 2016, and has been a consultant for the World Health Organization and for governments on climate risk assessments and adaptation.

Dean of the ANU College of Health and Medicine, Professor Russell Gruen, said, “NCEPH has a critical role as we emerge from the global pandemic. Professor Bambrick has been part of the ANU community for most of her life, first as a child and daughter of Dr Susan Bambrick who was a former Dean of Students and Master of University House, then herself as a student, and as an academic. I look forward to Hilary’s return to ANU as an academic leader to help realise the full potential of NCEPH for the University, the nation and the world.”

Professor Bambrick will take up the role on 11 May.