
Background
Dr Chris Morgan is a physician working in international public health with special interests in global immunisation, health system strengthening, primary health care, international child health, maternal and newborn care, birth-dose vaccination against hepatitis B, and health-worker education and training.
Chris worked at Burnet from 2001-2020 before taking up a role with Jhpiego, the Johns Hopkins University affiliate, leading their immunisation work in Africa and Asia.
Prior to commencing at Burnet, Chris worked in primary health care in Tibet, China (1997-2000), in community health and hospital paediatrics in Nepal (1993-7), having trained as a paediatrician at the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children in Sydney (now Children's Hospital Westmead) from 1984-1992. During that time he undertook additional work in indigenous child health, tropical paediatric specialisation, and developing a child health training program for primary care physicians.
Chris completed his doctoral degree at the University of Melbourne's Department of Medicine, researching the integration of other services with immunisation, including studies embedded in Burnet's Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies program in PNG.
Chris has coordinated the MPH subject Primary Health Care in Developing Countries from 2003–2013, and continues to support post-graduate education, including coordination of the Postgraduate Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene commencing in 2014.
Qualifications
- 1991: Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians
- 1990: Diploma in Tropical Child Health, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, United Kingdom
- 1983: MBBS, University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Appointments
- 2019: Member, World Health Organization South-East Asia Regional Expert Panel for Verification of Hepatitis B Control
- 2019: Member, World Health Organization Technical Advisory Group on Immunization and Vaccine-preventable Diseases in the Western Pacific Region
- 2014: Principal Investigator, Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies, Papua New Guinea
- 2014 – 2018: Chair of the World Health Organization (WHO)'s Immunization Practices Advisory Committee
- 2011 – 2012: Chair of AusAID's China-Australia Health and HIV/AIDS Facility (CAHHF) Technical Reference Panel
- 2011 – 2014: Member of the World Health Organization (WHO)'s Immunization Practices Advisory Committee
- 2010 – 2011: Pacific Product Coordinator, Health Policy and Health Finance Knowledge Hub, Nossal Institute for Global Health, University of Melbourne
- 2010 – 2013: Product leader - maternal and newborn care for Compass – the Women’s and Children’s Health Knowledge Hub, at Burnet Institute's Centre for International Health
- 2008 – 2010: Technical Director, Improving Newborn Care and Birth-dose Vaccination at the Aid-post Level in PNG
- 2007 – 2010 Technical Director, AusAID's China Australia Health and HIV Facility
- 2004 – 2009: Technical Director, Project Responding to Measles and other Vaccine Preventable Diseases in PNG
- 2004 – 2009: Program Technical Director and then M&E Advisor on the AusAID Tibet Health Sector Support Program.
- 2003: Fellow in the School of Population Health of the University of Melbourne, Victoria Australia
- 2003: Adjunct Senior Lecturer in the School of Population Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University, Victoria, Australia
- 2001 – 2004: Child Health and Immunisation Advisor and assistant Project Director (M&E) on the AusAID Women’s and Children’s Health Project in Papua New Guinea
- 2001 – 2004: Consulted with WHO on various aspects of implementation of their Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) program.
Awards
- 2017: Burnet Institute, Frank Fenner Award
- 1990: Cicely Williams Medal for Tropical Paediatrics
Positions
- 2017 – 2020: Co-head, Maternal and Child Health and Nutrition Working Group, Burnet Institute
- 2017 – 2020: Head of International Development, Burnet Institute
- 2001 – 2020: Principal Fellow, Centre of International Health, Burnet Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- 1997 – 2000: Team Leader, Tibet Primary Health Care and Water Supply Project, TAR, China
- 1993 – 1997: Paediatrician and Community Medical Officer, United Mission Hospital, Tansen, Nepal
- 1991 – 1992: Chief Resident/Assistant Chief Resident, Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- 1985 – 1989: Paediatric Registrar/RMO, Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, New South Wales, Australia
- 1983 – 1984: RMO/Intern, Royal North Shore Hospital, New South Wales, Australia
Burnet publications
View 60 moreBaseline assessment of front-line health system capacity in vector-borne disease surveillance and response in Papua New Guinea
PLOS Global Public Health
Rachael Farquhar et al
Immunisation health workforce capacity building in Southeast Asia: reflections from training programme implementation in Cambodia and Lao PDR
BMJ Global Health
Gemma Saravanos et al
Missed Measles Immunisations Places Individuals and Communities at Risk: The Equity Argument for Including Measles in Under-Immunised Definitions
Vaccines
Stefanie Vaccher et al
Past projects
Evaluating a highly sensitive rapid malaria diagnostic in PNG
This project compares the performance of novel high sensitivity Plasmodium falciparum rapid diagnostic tests with conventional tests.

Tibet health capacity building program (Tibet Health)
Implemented in partnership with the Tibet Regional Health and Family Planning Commission, this is the latest in a decade-long relationship between agencies, funded by the Australian government, working together to strengthen the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) health system.

Evaluation of the Joint Initiative for Maternal Newborn and Child Health in Myanmar
Burnet, in partnership with local and international researchers, led the impact evaluation of this project to document successes and guide future UN investments.