Ian Prior Oration
| Thursday, July 17, 2025 |
| 4:45 PM - 5:30 PM |
| Grand Ballroom |
Overview
Modern epidemiology - the science of public health and beyond
Details
Prof Anne-Louise Ponsonby (B Med Sci, MBBS, PhD, FAFPHM, FAFHMS, RACP)
NHMRC Senior Leadership Fellow, Division Head, Early Brain Division and Research Group, Head of the Neuroepidemiology Group, Florey Institute for Neuroscience and Mental Health
Professor Anne-Louise Ponsonby (B Med Sci, MBBS, PhD, FAFPHM, FAFHMS, RACP) is an NHMRC Senior Leadership Fellow and is the Division Head for the Early Brain Division and Research Group Head of the Neuroepidemiology Group at the Florey Institute for Neuroscience and Mental Health. Ponsonby is also an Honorary Professor in the Molecular Epidemiology group at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Royal Children’s Hospital, University of Melbourne.
As an epidemiologist and public health physician, Ponsonby has extensive experience in the design, conduct, and analysis of birth cohorts, trials, and other studies. She is a co PI of a large birth cohort of over 10,000 infants that generated knowledge leading to a decline in sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) incidence. In Australia, SIDS deaths declined by 80%; from 1.9 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 0.2 live births in 2012 (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2013). More recently, Ponsonby’s work has led to expertise in combining population epidemiologic and biostatistical approaches with system biology, with publications on the content and process of that important interface. Ponsonby also works across a range of diseases including multiple sclerosis and food allergy. Ponsonby has founded key study platforms that have advanced analytics for integrating multidimensional data. Ponsonby’s international collaborations facilitate these platforms and advance Australia’s capacity to assess human health effects of chemical mixtures and undertake analyses on prenatal plastics in birth cohorts and related epigenetic programming of adverse neurodevelopment Ponsonby has over 550 publications. Her expertise in public health translation contributes rapid public health translation to prevention and treatment.
Speaker
Anne-Louise Ponsonby
Florey Institute for Neuroscience and Mental Health
Modern epidemiology - the science of public health and beyond
Abstract
Modern epidemiology retains a central role in the modern world, not only as the science of public health but a discipline that can advance our understanding of molecular disease causation and how at the population level, we can best defect, evaluate and contribute to global threat solutions.
I review some of the experiences and insight gained over my career highlighting work in a primary and secondary disease prevention, particularly work originating in Tasmania on sudden infant death syndrome and multiple sclerosis. I also outline my more recent work including casual disease pathways and the assessment of pollution health impacts in early life.
I review some of the experiences and insight gained over my career highlighting work in a primary and secondary disease prevention, particularly work originating in Tasmania on sudden infant death syndrome and multiple sclerosis. I also outline my more recent work including casual disease pathways and the assessment of pollution health impacts in early life.
