EPIDEMIOLOGY
MEMBER EXPERTS
2020: Year of the Epidemiologist! I joined UNSW Sydney in 1992 as a lecturer and over the years I was promoted to Professor of Epidemiology, Hospital Infection and Infectious Diseases Control. I have been privileged to represent Medicine on the Academic Board and have held the role of Deputy President for the last 2 years. I am also the Water-Health Leader of the UNSW Global Water Institute. I was very fortunate to have the choice of free university education. My mother was a single parent and my brother and I were the first to attend university since my mother’s family arrived from Europe where her grandfather was a professor of music. So the privilege of a free university education was a highly treasured opportunity that sadly is no longer available to Australians. My research career began during my Masters of Public Health at the University of Sydney in clinical epidemiology under the guidance of eminent Professors Geoffrey Berry and Les Irwig; both were exceptional biostatisticians and clinical epidemiologists and generous mentors while I performed the first surveillance study of surgical sites and other infection complications in Australian hospitals. An opportunity of a life time came up when I was offered a position with Professor David Cooper at UNSW as a PhD candidate in Australia’s first HIV research centre. Professor Cooper was a generous and innovative mentor encouraging me to think big and along with Professors Berry and Irwig, I was mentored across two universities and given the skills to become an all-round academic focusing on teaching, research and social responsibility.
Mary-Louise McLaws UNSW
I returned to researching patient safety associated with hospital associated infections and developed the first automated surveillance system for public hospitals as a pilot for the NSW Ministry of Health. The World Health Organization (WHO) offered me a position as
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SEPTEMBER 2020
