close search

Professor Freya J.I. Fowkes

Deputy Program Director, Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health; Head, Malaria and Infectious Disease Epidemiology
Background

Professor Freya Fowkes is an NHMRC Leadership Fellow and Head of the Malaria and Infectious Disease Epidemiology group at Burnet Institute. She is also the Director of the Centre of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Melbourne.

Freya completed her doctorate in Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the University of Oxford and post-doctoral training at New York University and the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. Her research program spans basic science, epidemiology, statistics and mathematical modelling and focuses on malaria in high-risk populations and antimalarial drug resistance.

Freya is involved in several multinational studies of malaria elimination and works with international partners, including WHO and the National Malaria Control Programs, to translate findings into relevant malaria control, elimination and surveillance strategies.

Qualifications
  • 2007: DPhil, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
  • 2002: MSc, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom
  • 2001: BSc (Hons), University of Glasgow, United Kingdom
Positions
  • 2023–current: Deputy Program Director, Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health, Burnet Institute
  • 2011–current: Head of Malaria and Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Burnet Institute
  • 2011–current: Senior Principal Research Fellow and NHMRC Fellow, Burnet Institute 
  • 2021–2024: Head, Malaria Elimination Initiative, Burnet Institute
  • 2007–2010: Post-doctoral Researcher, Walter + Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
Appointments
  • 2024–current: Director, Centre of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Melbourne
  • 2018–current: Chief Investigator, NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in Malaria Elimination
  • 2019–current: Professor of Epidemiology, University of Melbourne
  • 2011–current: Editorial Board, Malaria Journal
  • 2018–current: Australian Society of Medical Research 
  • 2010–current: Victorian Infection and Immunity Network 
  • 2008–current: The Australian Society of Parasitology 
  • 2005–current: The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Awards
  • 2020 Crofts Publication Award
  • 2018 Frank Fenner Award for Medical Research
  • 2017 Crofts Publication Award
  • 2016 Georgina Sweet Award for Women in Quantitative Bioscience
  • 2014  Burnet Institute Gust-McKenzie Medal