Global Neonatal Update (GNU) 2027

Lineup

• More details about Prof Georg Schmolzer

  Prof Georg Schmolzer

  Professor Georg Schmölzer is the Director of the Centre for the Studies of Asphyxia and Resuscitation (CSAR) at the University of Alberta. He is a clinician-scientist and practicing neonatologist with the Northern Alberta Neonatal Program. His research focuses on understanding the physiological changes that occur during the transition from fetal to neonatal life, as well as during infant and pediatric resuscitation. Through this work, he aims to improve both short- and long-term outcomes for newborns, infants, and children.

• More details about Prof Joy Lawn

  Prof Joy Lawn

  Joy is a Ugandan-born, British-trained paediatrician/neonatal clinician and perinatal epidemiologist with 30 years’ experience especially in sub-Saharan Africa including: clinical care, measurement and burden estimates, implementation/evaluation of maternal, newborn and child health. Her paediatric/neonatal training was in the UK, followed by teaching, implementation and research, mainly living in Africa. Her MPH was from Emory, Atlanta, USA, whilst at CDC, and her PhD at Institute of Child Health, London. For 10 years, she was Director of Evidence and Policy for the Gates funded Saving Newborn Lives/Save the Children. She has been a professor at LSHTM since 2012, and was Director of the MARCH Centre (Maternal Adolescent Reproductive & Child Health) from 2013-2023 seeing growth from 200 to over 500 academics. Her main contribution to global health has been developing the evidence-base to measure and reduce the global burden of 2.3 million neonatal deaths, 2 million stillbirths, and 13.4 million preterm births, including informing Sustainable Development Goal targets. She has published >450 peer-reviewed papers including leading several influential Lancet series, with wide media and policy uptake. H-index ~140 and has been in the top 1% of cited scientists for a decade. She is Co-Chair of the Lancet Commission on Implementation and Evidence in Global Health. She is a champion for equitable and diverse research leadership, and has supervised many PhDs and post-docs. Joy is one of the few women nominated to membership of both UK Academy of Medical Sciences and USA National Academy of Medicine. She has served on many WHO committees, inclduing STAGE, Global Statistics, Group B Step and been part of Every Newborn/EWENE leadership team since 2014.

• More details about A/Prof Cheryl Battersby

  A/Prof Cheryl Battersby

  Cheryl Battersby is a Clinical Senior Lecturer at the Neonatal Data Analysis Unit, Imperial College London and Consultant Neonatologist Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. She is supported by an NIHR Advanced Fellowship and leads neoWONDER www.neowonder.org.uk: 'Neonatal Whole Population Data linkage to improve lifelong health and wellbeing of preterm babies'. She will link data from a 12-year cohort of babies held on the UK National Neonatal Research Database, to health and education data.

• More details about A/Prof Chris McKinlay

  A/Prof Chris McKinlay

  Chris McKinlay is a neonatologist at Kidz First Hospital, Counties Manukau, Auckland and Associate Professor in the Department of Paediatrics, University of Auckland. His clinical and research interests focus on early life determinants of metabolic and respiratory health, and neurodevelopment and school achievement.

• More details about Prof Jeanie Cheong

  Prof Jeanie Cheong

  Jeanie Cheong is a consultant neonatologist with expertise in neonatal neurology, neuroimaging and long term follow up. Jeanie is a Honorary Professorial Fellow with the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at the University of Melbourne and is based at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne, where she is the lead Clinician in the High Risk Newborn Follow Up Clinic.

• More details about Prof Ju Lee Oei

  Prof Ju Lee Oei

  Professor Ju-Lee Oei is the inaugural Chair of Neonatology at Mater, working across Mater Mothers’ hospitals and Mater Research to advance healthcare outcomes for mothers and babies. Ju Lee has extensive research and clinical expertise in the resuscitation of sick newborns, and in the care of mothers, babies and families affected by drugs of addiction and dependency. She has authored more than 190 scientific papers, mentored more than 70 students and neonatal trainees and is currently the chief investigator of two multi-centre trials for the use of oxygen in newborn babies.

• More details about A/Prof Himanshu Popat

  A/Prof Himanshu Popat

  A/Prof Himanshu Popat is Clinical Lead and Co-Director of the Grace Centre for Newborn Intensive Care at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Sydney Clinical Trials Centre (formerly the NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre), a flagship centre within the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney. Himanshu co-leads research at the Grace Centre and chairs the Australia and New Zealand Neonatal Surgical Network (ANZNSN), which is dedicated to improving outcomes for high-risk surgical newborns. He also serves as a Board Director of the Australia and New Zealand Neonatal Network (ANZNN).

• More details about Prof Peter Davis

  Prof Peter Davis

  Peter Davis is a consultant neonatologist, and a leading Australian clinician-researcher in neonatal resuscitation and ventilation. As Director of Neonatal Medicine at The Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne, Peter leads a team of clinical researchers, interested in improving the care of babies in the delivery room and in the intensive care unit, and he contributes to both the undergraduate and postgraduate education programs at the hospital.

• More details about Prof Josh Vogel

  Prof Josh Vogel

  Joshua is a perinatal epidemiologist and public health researcher. He is a Senior Principal Research Fellow at Burnet Institute, where he co‐heads the multidisciplinary Global Women’s and Newborn’s Health group. His research focuses on maternal and perinatal health issues of global concern, with a focus on improving the quality of maternity care for women in resource‐constrained settings. Joshua has published over 200 peer‐review articles and has led development of several World Health Organization guidelines in the field of maternal and perinatal health. He was the winner of the 2020 Nature Research Awards for Driving Global Impact, and the 2020 Commonwealth Health Minister's Award for Excellence in Health and Medical Research.

• More details about Prof Kirsten Palmer

  Prof Kirsten Palmer

  Professor Kirsten Palmer is a clinician researcher. She is a maternal fetal medicine sub-specialist and heads the Maternal Fetal Medicine unit at Monash Medical Centre, Monash Health; an incredible team of people that provide care for some of the most complex pregnancies in Victoria. She is Deputy Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Monash University where she co-leads the Pregnancy Discovery and Translational Research Collaborative, a research team focusing on reducing the impact of major pregnancy complications, such as fetal growth restriction and preeclampsia.

  • Prof Kirsten Palmer's website
• More details about Prof Ben Mol

  Prof Ben Mol

  Ben leads the Evidenced based Women’s Health Care Research Group in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at Monash University. Much medical practice around the world is conducted without evidence that interventions are beneficial to the patient and will not cause harm. This group aims to develop evidence on the effectiveness of all medical interventions in this area, preferably through large collaborations in randomised clinical trials, to provide insight on the available evidence tailored to the individual patient for both patients and doctors. To achieve this, international collaboration through coordination of research agendas for clinical and basic research, and the establishment of guidelines is essential. The group aims to involve young people, create large datasets and initiate international collaboration.

• More details about Prof Stephen Tong

  Prof Stephen Tong

  Professor Stephen Tong is the Co-Director of Mercy Perinatal. He is a Professor of Obstetrics at The University of Melbourne and an obstetrician at Mercy Hospital for Women. As a clinician scientist and an academic obstetrician, Stephen is keenly focused on developing diagnostics and therapeutics for major pregnancy complications. He has a profound interest in finding new treatments for preeclampsia and developing a diagnostic test for placental health.

  • Prof Stephen Tong's website
• More details about Prof Sue Walker AO

  Prof Sue Walker AO

  Professor Sue Walker AO FAAHMS is the Head of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Newborn Health at The University of Melbourne since 2016 and is also the Chair of the Division of Perinatal Medicine at the Mercy Hospital for Women. She was appointed to the Sheila Handbury Chair of Maternal Fetal Medicine, University of Melbourne in 2011. She is currently co-Director of Mercy Perinatal, a centre of excellence in clinical care, education and research in high-risk pregnancy. Her research interests include improved detection of fetal growth disorders, new treatments for preeclampsia, and reducing the burden of preventable stillbirth.

  • Prof Sue Walker AO's website
  • Prof Sue Walker AO's linkedin
  • Prof Sue Walker AO's x
• More details about Prof Brett Manley

  Prof Brett Manley

  GNU 2027 Organiser Professor Brett Manley is a consultant neonatologist specialising in perinatal clinical trials and improving respiratory outcomes for very preterm infants. He graduated from the MB BS from The University of Melbourne with Honours in 2001, and received a PhD in 2014. In 2024 he was appointed the inaugural Professor of Neonatal Medicine and Director of Neonatal Research at the Mercy Hospital for Women, and is a Professor in the Department of OGN. He is a Dame Kate Campbell Fellow at UniMelb, and his research awards include the Marles Medal for STEMM (2023). He has led and collaborated on numerous clinical trials including four published in the New England journal of Medicine. The PLUSS trial of intratracheal budesonide (JAMA 2024) that he led was the ACTA Clinical Trial of the Year 2024 and also won the ACTA Excellence in Statistics Award. Currently he co-leads the implementation of the world-first PLATIPUS adaptive platform trial to improve health outcomes for preterm infants.

  • Prof Brett Manley's website
• More details about Dr Nat Duffy

  Dr Nat Duffy

  Dr Nat Duffy is a Consultant Neonatologist, working in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of the Mercy Hospital for Women, Heidelberg, a busy tertiary neonatal unit caring for infants born from 22 weeks to full term. She also works for PIPER, the Paediatric Infant and Perinatal Emergency Retrieval service, based at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne. In NICU, she is the medical lead for the infant and family centred neurodevelopmental care special interest group and has co-authored the statewide guidelines on this same topic. For PIPER, she works closely with Ambulance Victoria, teaching paramedics how to safely care for infants born out of hospital.