Professor Emily Banks AM is a public health physician and epidemiologist with interest and expertise in chronic disease, tobacco control, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and healthy ageing. The main emphasis of her work has been in using large-scale evidence to identify actions to improve health and health care, at an individual and population level. 

She is Head of the Centre of Epidemiology for Policy and Practice at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, an NHMRC Investigator Fellow, Chair of the NHMRC Health Research Impact Committee, Member of NHMRC Council, Deputy Chair of the Heart Foundation Research Committee and a Visiting Professor at Oxford University. She chaired the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Medicines from 2010-2016. She was based in the UK from 1995-2003, where she was Deputy Director of the Cancer Research UK Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford and joint Principal Investigator of the Million Women Study. Professor Banks' awards include: the UK Woman of Achievement in Science and Technology (2000); the ANU Vice-Chancellor's Awards for career achievement (2010), media engagement (2011 and 2016) and research translation (2011); the National Breast Cancer Foundation Patron’s Award for services to breast cancer research (2014), the Medical Journal of Australia/MDA National Prize for Excellence in Medical Research (2015), AFR/Wespac 100 Women of Influence (2016); the ACT Heart Foundation's Women with Heart (2017); Australian Citation for University Teaching (2017); President's award, Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand (2020); Member of the Order of Australia (2021); and Australian Medical Association Gold Medal (2022).