New researchers to lead health outcomes at Charles Perkins Centre
The Charles Perkins Centre has announced two new domain leaders to spearhead research outcomes and focus multidisciplinary collaborations. Professor Alex Broom takes the helm of the Society and Environment, and Professor Tim Shaw has been appointed to lead Solutions.
The Charles Perkins Centre is the University of Sydney’s first multidisciplinary intiative (MDI), established in 2012, and has become the exemplar for the University’s five other MDIs with another planned for launch later this year.
Professor Alex Broom (l) and Professor Tim Shaw (r)
The Centre’s research structure – Domains, Themes, Initiatives and Project Nodes – has stimulated and stewarded innovative collaborations in its over 10-year existence, with over 60 Project Nodes uniting research collaborations across faculties, schools and disciplines. The new appointments from two faculties reflect the breadth of research at the Charles Perkins Centre.
Professor Alex Broom is Professor of Sociology in the School of Social and Political Sciences in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. He is also Director of the Sydney Centre for Healthy Societies which has already inspired a number of collaborations with the Charles Perkins Centre, including, most recently, a new food social science program with the Centre’s Professor David Raubenheimer – CPC Theme leader for Nutrition – which seeks to bridge nutrition and social sciences in food systems research. Professor Broom is recognised as an international leader in sociology.
“I have a specific interest in the sociology of health, illness and care and my research explores the intersections of individual experience and social, political and economic context. In that sense my work challenges the centrality of individual affliction in our societies and emphasises instead the ecological and collective production of health” said Professor Broom.
We’re very much looking forward to continuing our research strategy with Professors Broom and Shaw in their leadership roles – welcome!
“This aligns perfectly with the Charles Perkins Centre’s Society and Environment Domain. I will focus on the ways in which health or illness are collectively co-produced through social practices and economic and political systems.
“I’m looking forward to leading the domain and encouraging work focusing on the inseparability of social life and disease, and how any meaningful progress in improving health outcomes needs to account for this complexity. Working at the Charles Perkins Centre is the perfect fit to drive outcomes across disciplines.”
Professor Tim Shaw already has a long association with the Charles Perkins Centre as Project Node Leader for Implementation science, a multidisciplinary group translating evidence to practice in chronic disease prevention and management. He is a recognised international leader in Digital Health.
He is Director of the Research in eHealth and Implementation Science Group (RISe) in the School of Medical Sciences and specialises in building partnerships across industry, services, government, communities and academia to deliver high impact research translation. He co-led the development and is a research leader in the $110 million Digital health Cooperative Research Centre.
“My research focuses on how digital health can support new models of care as well as clinical decision support. I have a particular interest in how technology can support equity of access and is leading research into how technology can improve access to care in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
I’m delighted to be leading the Solutions Domain and continuing my work facilitating how research at the Centre can be translated into practice, especially among early- and mid-career researchers. The Domain will focus particularly on how research can be guided by priorities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities,” said Professor Shaw.
Professors Broom and Shaw join existing Domain leaders Professor David James (Biology) and Professor Natasha Nassar (Population) in uniting and extending the Charles Perkins Centre’s research strategy.
“We pay homage to our outgoing leads: Professor Emeritus Stephen Colagiuri and Professor Paul Griffiths and who have so expertly led the Solutions and the Society and Environment Domains, respectively, during their establishment and development,” said Professor Stephen J Simpson, Academic Director, Charles Perkins Centre.
“Their work in bringing together world-leading multidisciplinary collaborations has been extraordinary and means that we are in an excellent position for the next stage in our development. Thank you, Paul and Stephen.
We’re very much looking forward to continuing our research strategy with Professors Broom and Shaw in their leadership roles – welcome!”
Hero image: View of the Sydney skyline from the Charles Perkins Centre, H M Loughlin