Equity in Action: Advancing Prevention and Evidence-Based Public Health

Join us on 10 Dec 2025 for the final School of Public Health Research Symposium under the University of Adelaide banner, before the transition to Adelaide University.

This significant event brings together leading academics from the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia to showcase their groundbreaking research and collaborative efforts in prevention and evidence-based public health. Explore innovative strategies that drive equity in health and wellbeing across communities.

Don’t miss this opportunity to engage with experts, share ideas, and celebrate the future of public health as we embark on an exciting new chapter.

This is a free event with lunch provided. Registrations before Friday, 28 November are essential to reserve your place (unless sold out prior).

As numbers are limited, if you are no longer able to attend, please cancel your booking or contact fhms@adelaide.edu.au so that your place can be given to someone else.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Professor Julian Higgins

Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, United Kingdom

Julian is Professor of Evidence Synthesis in the Population Health Sciences department of Bristol Medical School, where he co-directs the NIHR Bristol Evidence Synthesis Groups and the NIHR Specialised Living Evidence Synthesis Group. He was previously Chair in Evidence Synthesis at the University of York, and Programme Leader at the MRC Biostatistics Unit in Cambridge. Before these roles he worked at the medical schools of Imperial College London and of University College London.

Julian’s wide-ranging research interests span all areas of systematic review and meta-analysis. He has co-authored numerous papers on review methodology and applied systematic reviews.

Among his methods contributions are a Bayesian approach to network meta-analysis; the I-squared statistic to quantify inconsistency across studies in a meta-analysis; simple prediction intervals for random-effects meta-analysis; a general framework for individual participant data meta-analysis; a library of prior distributions for between-study variation in a meta-analysis; and risk-of-bias assessment tools for clinical trials and other study designs. He was a member of the development teams for the original PRISMA reporting guideline for systematic reviews and meta-analyses and the STROBE-MR reporting guidelines for Mendelian randomization studies.

Julian is a past President of the Society for Research Synthesis Methodology. He has long been an active contributor to Cochrane and has co-edited the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions since 2003. He is also co-author of the Wiley textbook Introduction to Meta-analysis and co-editor of the 2022 3rd edition of Wiley textbook Systematic Reviews in Health Research: Meta-analysis in Context.

DR TERESE BURGESS ORATION

Professor Fran Baum AO

Director, Stretton Health Equity, NHMRC Leadership Investigator Fellow, School of Social Sciences, The University of Adelaide

Professor Fran Baum AO is a public health social scientist with a special interest in creating and advocating for healthy, equitable and sustainable societies. She is Director of Stretton Health Equity, Stretton Institute, University of Adelaide and an NHMRC Investigator Fellow Leadership 3.   

She received an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for her public health service. She is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences and of the Australian Health Promotion Association. 

She is a past National President and Life Member of the Public Health Association of Australia.

She is the immediate past co-Chair of the Global Steering Council of the People’s Health Movement – a global network of health activist (PHM | People’s Health Movement) and a member of the PHM Advisory Council. She is currently a member of the Lancet Commission on Global Governance for Health. She is the author of over 400 publications including: The New Public Health (2016, Oxford University Press) and Governing for Health (2019 Oxford University Press) and co-editor of the Oxford Textbook of Global Public Health (2021).   

SYMPOSIUM PROGRAM

While we will make every effort to adhere to the outlined plan, please note that the program may be subject to change.

PRESENTERS

Professor Lyle Palmer

Professor of Genetic Epidemiology and Senior Research Fellow in Medical Machine Learning, School of Public Health and AIML, The University of Adelaide

"Medical and Public Health AI in South Australia"

Professor Zoe Jordan

Executive Director, Joanna Briggs Institute, School of Public Health, The University of Adelaide

"Equity by design: building global infrastructure for evidence synthesis"

Professor Philip Weinstein

Professorial Research Fellow, School of Public Health, The University of Adelaide

"The coming plague of joint pain: blood suckers, immune modulators, and urban greening"

Professor Elina Hypponen

Professor in Nutritional and Genetic Epidemiology, Director of the Australian Centre for Precision Health, NHMRC Leadership Investigator Fellow, Australian Centre for Precision Health, University of South Australia,

"Predicting and preventing ovarian cancer: a machine learning approach"

Professor Peng Bi

Environmental Change and Health Outcomes (ECHO), School of Public Health, The University of Adelaide

"Climate Change and Population Health: Risk Assessments and Health Adaptation"

Professor Vivienne Moore

Professor of Social Epidemiology, School of Public Health, The University of Adelaide

"Women’s Health, Public Health and Biomedicine"

Professor Caroline Laurence

Health Services Researcher and Educator, School of Public Health, The University of Adelaide

"Addressing health equity through workforce planning: a 25-year research journey"

Professor Adrian Esterman

Professor of Biostatistics, Allied Health & Human Performance, University of South Australia

"Long Covid- the condition everyone has forgotten about"

Professor Zachary Munn

Director Health Evidence Synthesis, Recommendations and Impact (HESRI), Director Adelaide GRADE Centre, School of Public Health, The University of Adelaide

"Developing clinical and public health guidelines: what about equity?"

Professor Tracy Merlin

Head of School of Public Health, The University of Adelaide

"Making government funding of medicines and medical services more equitable: AHTA's role in the Australian HTA policy and Methods Review"

SYMPOSIUM EMCEES

Associate Professor Jaklin Eliott & Associate Professor Zohra Lassi