Rate My Professor Freya Fowkes

Professor Freya Fowkes is Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne. She earned her DPhil in Infectious Disease Epidemiology from the University of Oxford in 2007, MSc from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2002, and BSc (Hons) from the University of Glasgow in 2001. Her career trajectory includes Head of the Malaria and Infectious Disease Epidemiology group at the Burnet Institute since 2011, where she serves as Senior Principal Research Fellow and NHMRC Leadership Fellow. Additional roles at Burnet encompass Deputy Program Director for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health since 2023 and Head of the Malaria Elimination Initiative from 2021 to 2024. Previously, she was a Post-doctoral Researcher at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research from 2007 to 2010.

Fowkes' research program integrates basic science, epidemiology, statistics, and mathematical modelling, with a focus on malaria in high-risk populations, antimalarial drug resistance, and malaria elimination strategies. She leads multinational studies and collaborates with the World Health Organization and National Malaria Control Programs to translate research into control and surveillance policies. Her contributions have garnered over 12,000 citations on Google Scholar. Notable publications include 'The invisible burden of malaria-attributable stillbirths' (The Lancet, 2020), 'The Relationship between Anti-merozoite Antibodies and Incidence of Plasmodium falciparum Malaria: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis' (PLoS Medicine, 2010), 'Geospatial joint modeling of vector and parasite serology to microstratify malaria transmission' (PNAS, 2024), and 'Human antibodies against Anopheles salivary proteins: emerging biomarkers of mosquito and malaria exposure' (Trends in Parasitology, 2025). Awards and honors include the NHMRC Leadership Fellowship, 2020 and 2017 Crofts Publication Awards, 2018 Frank Fenner Award for Medical Research, 2016 Georgina Sweet Award for Women in Quantitative Bioscience, and 2014 Burnet Institute Gust-McKenzie Medal. She serves on the Editorial Board of Malaria Journal since 2011 and holds memberships in the Australian Society of Medical Research, Victorian Infection and Immunity Network, Australian Society of Parasitology, and American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.