Medicine: Dr Jocelyn Chan

Graduated: 2011

Role: Epidemiologist and PhD candidate at the Centre for International Child Health, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute

The work: My research is about understanding how many people need to receive the pneumococcal vaccine to achieve herd immunity in low and middle-income country settings, specifically Laos, Mongolia and Papua New Guinea.The vaccine protects against a major cause of pneumonia, meningitis and septicaemia. Another important part of my work is about sharing my research skills with our overseas collaborators who may not have had access to the excellent educational opportunities available in Australia.

Professional highlights: After working as a junior doctor for two years, I specialised in public health. That has given me opportunities to work in interesting situations: investigating an outbreak of psittacosis in a veterinary school, conducting disease surveillance with WHO as part of the Ebola response in Sierra Leone and assisting with a mass vaccination campaign in South Sudan with Medecins Sans Frontieres.

School highlights: I undertook a research project at the Centre for International Child Health as part of a program which was then known as Advanced Medical Science. I found it really satisfying to be able to apply the epidemiology and biostatistics knowledge I’d learnt as part of medical school. It also showed me the potential for research to improve the lives of children worldwide in a sustainable and ethical way.