John Carlin

Professor John Carlin holds honorary appointments as Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Melbourne's Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, within the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, and as Honorary Professorial Fellow in the Department of Paediatrics. He completed his PhD in Statistics at Harvard University following a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics and Statistics. Since arriving at the Melbourne Children's campus in 1991, Carlin has built a distinguished career in biostatistics applied to paediatric and adolescent health research.

Previously Head of the Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics Unit at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute for 21 years until 2022, Carlin's research encompasses clinical trials and epidemiological studies in areas such as allergy, asthma, cystic fibrosis, cardiac disease, neonatology, vaccines, and mental health. His methodological contributions include advancements in handling missing data via multiple imputation, causal inference, and Bayesian methods, as well as critiques of statistical concepts like significance testing. He co-founded the Biostatistics Collaboration of Australia and established the Master of Biostatistics degree program at the University of Melbourne. In 2012, under an NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence grant, he founded the Victorian Centre for Biostatistics, fostering collaboration among MCRI, University of Melbourne, and Monash University. Recognized for his leadership, Carlin was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences in 2018 and awarded the Pitman Medal by the Statistical Society of Australia in 2023. Notable publications include "Adolescent depressive disorder: a population-based study of ICD-10 symptoms" (Patton et al., Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 2000), "What Is Meant by 'Missing at Random'?" (Seaman et al., Statistical Science, 2013), and "The Ideal Trial: Defining Causal Estimands..." (Moreno-Betancur et al., Epidemiology, 2026).

Professional Email: john.carlin@unimelb.edu.au