Rate My Professor Tristram Ingham

Tristram Ingham is a Research Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Otago, Wellington, promoted effective 1 February 2026. Affiliated with Ngāti Kahungunu ki Heretaunga and Ngāti Porou, he is a clinical epidemiologist and public health physician whose research advances equity in respiratory health, Māori disability, and health services governance. Major interests include asthma particularly among Māori, bronchiolitis, the role of vitamin D in respiratory health, and sleep disordered breathing. He employs kaupapa Māori and mixed-methods research to translate evidence into policy and system change in Aotearoa New Zealand. Holding an MB ChB, Ingham serves as Deputy Head of the Department of Medicine on the Wellington campus and has been affiliated with the University of Otago since 2002. His expertise encompasses healthcare governance, health quality and safety, clinical epidemiology, child health, chronic conditions, disability, equity, and human rights.

Ingham has received the Companion of the King’s Service Order (KSO) in the New Year Honours for services to survivors of abuse in care, the Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) in 2024 for services to the disability community, honorary fellowship of the New Zealand College of Public Health Medicine, and memberships in the Institute of Directors New Zealand and Royal Society Te Apārangi. He chairs Te Ao Mārama Aotearoa Trust, Foundation for Equity and Research New Zealand, and co-chairs My Life My Voice Charitable Trust, while serving as a board member of Te Kāhū Hauora – Health Quality & Safety Commission. He led the development of the Whāia Te Ao Mārama Māori Disability Action Plan 2018-2022 and contributed the COVID-19 'bubble' concept. Key publications include 'Cord-blood 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels and risk of respiratory infection, wheezing, and asthma' (2011, cited 740 times), 'Breastfeeding protects against current asthma up to 6 years of age' (2012, cited 179 times), 'Damp mouldy housing and early childhood hospital admissions for acute respiratory infection: a case control study' (2019, cited 109 times), 'Poipoia te kākano kia puāwai: The operationalisation of Māori data sovereignty in Aotearoa' (2026), and 'The undercounting of Indigenous Māori imprisoned by the New Zealand carceral state' (2025). His work has garnered over 2500 citations, influencing public health policy and academic discourse on health inequities.