Professor Jodie McVernon is a physician with subspecialty qualifications in public health and vaccinology. She has extensive expertise in clinical vaccine trials, epidemiologic studies and mathematical modelling of infectious diseases, gained at the University of Oxford, Health Protection Agency London and The University of Melbourne. Her work focuses on the application of a range of cross-disciplinary methodological approaches including mathematical and computational models, to synthesise insights from basic biology, epidemiological data and sociological research. These models advance understanding of the observed epidemiology of infectious diseases and inform understanding of optimal interventions for disease control. She is Director of Epidemiology at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, a joint venture of the University of Melbourne and Royal Melbourne Hospital, and a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Principal Research Fellow. She leads the NHMRC-funded nationally distributed Centre of Research Excellence in Policy Relevant Infectious Diseases Simulation and Mathematical Modelling (www.prism.edu.au).