Professor Les Irwig, BSc, MBBCh, PhD, serves as Professor Emeritus at the University of Sydney, holding a Personal Chair in Epidemiology within Sydney Medical School, part of the Faculty of Medicine and Health. As a qualified medical practitioner, epidemiologist, and biostatistician, he has built a distinguished career focused on evidence-based health care. His primary academic interests center on the evaluation of diagnostic and screening tests, where he has pioneered methodological approaches to assess their accuracy and effectiveness. Irwig headed the Screening and Test Evaluation Program (STEP) at the School of Public Health, a major research endeavor funded through a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Program Grant. Under his leadership, STEP advanced the science of test evaluation, contributing to improved standards in clinical decision-making and public health policy.

Irwig's prolific research output includes more than 345 publications, amassing over 37,000 citations as documented on ResearchGate. He co-authored the influential book Smart Health Choices: Making Sense of Health Advice, first published in 1999 and updated in 2008 with co-authors Judy Irwig, Lyndal Trevena, and Melissa Sweet, providing practical guidance for informed health decisions. Key contributions feature seminal works such as Meta-analytic methods for diagnostic test accuracy (1994), Efficient Study Designs to Assess the Accuracy of Screening Tests (1994), and Evaluating new screening tests for breast cancer (2006), alongside studies addressing biases in breast cancer screening estimates and monitoring strategies for medical treatments. He has taught specialized courses on diagnostic test assessment, meta-analysis, guideline development, and advanced epidemiological methods at the University of Sydney. His expertise extends to editorial roles and committee contributions in epidemiology and evidence-based medicine. The Les Irwig School of Public Health Prize recognizes excellence in evidence-based medicine projects among Doctor of Medicine students. Irwig's rigorous approaches have profoundly shaped global practices in screening and diagnostic evaluation.

Professional Email: les.irwig@sydney.edu.au