Rate My Professor Jennifer Summers

Dr Jennifer Summers is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Public Health within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Otago, Wellington, a position she assumed in 2020. She completed her PhD in Public Health at the University of Otago in 2013, with a thesis entitled 'The Burden and Risk Factors for Death from the 1918-19 Influenza Pandemic amongst the New Zealand Military Forces of World War One'. She also holds a Diploma in the History of Medicine (DHMSA) from the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries, awarded in 2020 for her work 'An Overview of Vaccine use amongst the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces during World War One', alongside other qualifications including AKC, PGDPH, PGCAP, BSc, and professional accreditations such as CStat (Chartered Statistician from the Royal Statistical Society), FHEA, MRSNZ, and FRHistS. Before joining Otago, Summers worked as a Medical Statistician in the Division of Health and Social Care Research at King's College London. She is actively involved in supervising postgraduate students in Public Health and contributes to research units including the Health Environment & Infection Research Unit (HEIRU), the Co-Search team, and as an affiliate of the Burden of Disease Epidemiology, Equity and Cost-Effectiveness Programme (BODE3).

Summers' research focuses on life-course, historical, and infectious disease epidemiology, particularly the transmission and containment of influenza pandemic and seasonal strains, historical epidemiology, military history, pandemic preparedness, disease modelling with emphasis on transmission dynamics, health workforces and policy, and advanced statistical methodologies. Her influential publications include 'Potential lessons from the Taiwan and New Zealand health responses to the COVID-19 pandemic' (2020, co-authored with Hao-Yuan Cheng, Hsien-Ho Lin et al., over 388 citations), 'Improvements and Persisting Challenges in COVID-19 Response Compared with 1918-19 Influenza Pandemic Response, New Zealand (Aotearoa)' (2023), 'Differential mortality rates by ethnicity in 3 influenza pandemics over a century, New Zealand' (2012), and 'Mortality risk factors for pandemic influenza on New Zealand troop ship, 1918' (2010). Recent works address tobacco endgame strategies, COVID-19 quarantine failures in Australia and New Zealand, and comparative island nation pandemic responses. Her scholarship has significantly impacted understandings of historical and contemporary pandemic dynamics and public health policy.