Professor Robert Power AM

Professor Power AM is a Senior Principal Research Fellow at Burnet and Adjunct Professor at Monash University. He has been at Burnet since 2005, with his main current role being that of Program Director of the Fleming Fund Country Grant for Papua New Guinea, focusing on antimicrobial resistance. He is a social scientist who has worked in the field of international health and social behavioural research since 1985, with previous posts at medical schools and colleges within the University of London.

His primary focus has been on community-level public health interventions and research into social determinants of health amongst marginalised populations. He has been the Technical Director on major Australian Aid and USAID bilateral programs in Indonesia, as well as being Program Director for Australian Aid's Tibet Health program. He also completed seven years as Technical Director of UKAID's main regional HIV prevention program in Central Asia. Robert has consulted for major international donors in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, the Balkans, South-East Asia and China. During the early years of HIV he was instrumental in developing rapid assessment and response methodologies for the WHO and United Nations, completing such studies in Croatia and Egypt, the Czech Republic and Vietnam.

Other areas of his work include: the broad empirical and theoretical aspects of harm reduction; monitoring and evaluation; ethnography, innovative participatory research methods, implementation research, program development, and the use of social media to assess community responses to critical health issues.

• 1982: PhD, London School of Economics, United Kingdom
• 1982: Post Graduate Certificate in Education, University of London, United Kingdom
• 1978: BSc (Econ) London School of Economics, United Kingdom

• 2024: Head, AMR-One Health Group, Burnet Institute
• 2005: Professorial Fellow, School of Population Health, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
• 2007: Adjunct Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Victoria, Australia
• 1995-2005: Reader in Social & Health Sciences Research, Centre for Sexual Health & HIV Research, Royal Free and University College Medical School, University College, London, United Kingdom
• 1988-1995: Senior Research Fellow & Honorary Senior Lecturer, The Centre for Research on Drugs & Health Behaviour, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of London, United Kingdom
• 1985-1988: Research Fellow, Drug Indicators Project, Department of Politics & Sociology, Birkbeck College, University of London, United Kingdom

• 2022: Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to medicine in the field of international development and research, and to education.
• 2008: Shortlisted: Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, Victoria, Australia
• 2007: Commended: International Healthcare Project of the Year; Technical Director of DfID’s Central Asia Regional HIV/AIDS Program. Awarded by British Department of Health, United Kingdom
• 1998: Ministry of Health Medal: Egypt
• 1992: Society for the Study of Addiction: Travel Fellowship USA (University of Chicago; University of California; University of Denver) USA

• 2020: Consultant on key projects, Burnet Institute
• 2017: Head of International Operations, Burnet Institute
• 2013-17: Head of Centre for International Health, Burnet Institute, Melbourne, Australia
• 2008: Principal for Harm Reduction, Senior Principal Fellow, Burnet Institute, Victoria, Australia
• 2005-2008: Director of the Centre for Harm Reduction, Burnet Institute, Australia

2021 (2) 

• The Optimise Study: Vaccination knowledge, attitudes and beliefs. (PUBLIC HEALTH REPORT) Saich F, Kwong E, Heath K, Altermatt A, Munari S. Merner B, Hill S, Stoové M, Griffiths D, Collie A, Lim M, Eddy S, Meagher N, McDougall C, Marinkovic Chavez K, Carpenter L, Fletcher-Lartey S, Price D, Gibbs L, Shearer F, Power R, Cheong M, Caddy C, Pedrana A, Gibney K, Hellard M. The Optimise Study. August, 2021.
• The Optimise Study: Impact of government restrictions on risk mitigation strategies. (PUBLIC HEALTH REPORT) Saich F, Kwong E, Heath K, Altermatt A, Munari S. Merner B, Hill S, Power R, Cheong M, Caddy C, Griffiths D, Collie A, Stoové M, Pedrana A, Gibney K, Hellard M. The Optimise Study. July, 2021.