Prof Shyamali Dharmage (MBBS, MSc, MD, PhD), trained in Clinical Medicine, Public Health & Epidemiology, leads the Allergy & Lung Health Unit at the University Of Melbourne. She is a world-recognised leader in Life Course Epidemiology of Allergies and Chronic Respiratory Diseases, and is ranked in the top 0.047% worldwide in the field of Obstructive Lung Diseases (Expertscape rank).
Prof Dharmage is the current custodian and PI of three of the world’s key studies in allergies and lung health i.e.

the Tasmanian Longitudinal Health Study (TAHS), Melbourne Atopy Cohort Study (MACS) and Melbourne Study of Childhood Asthma (MESCA). Her research impacts policy and practice (e.g. changed infant feeding guidelines worldwide), has shifted paradigms (e.g. early life origins of COPD) and led to new fields of research (e.g. skin interventions to reduce childhood allergies and exploring the value of Computed Tomography (CT) scans to identify lifetime lung trajectories).

She has >450 publications (>250 in the last 5 yrs) with >20,000 citations. She has won over $68.8M in grants (>$33M in the last 5 yrs). She has been awarded 33 NHMRC grants and fellowships as CI (11 in the last 5 yrs), including 16 as CIA and 6 Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) grants as a CI. She has received ongoing NHMRC career support since 1997. She has supervised, trained and mentored a large cohort of national and international junior researchers who are now destined to become next generation research leaders.

She has a strong engagement with research end-users via patient groups (Asthma Foundation Research Advisory Committee member) and plays a leadership role in knowledge translation through Advisory Board positions (AIHW CRD). She is on several international editorial boards and advisory committees including the International Advisory Board of Lancet Respiratory Medicine and the CADSET advisory committee. She is currently a Lancet Commissioner for a state-of-the-art article in COPD.