Damian is an ICU nurse at NSW Health, PhD candidate and Senior Research Officer within the Biosecurity Program at the Kirby Institute. Damian's research focuses on emerging infectious diseases, rapid epidemic surveillance, field response, epidemics, pandemics, bioterrorism, bio-intelligence, and health security in the changing biotechnology landscape. Damian's research is both quantitative and qualitative and he is an analyst in the EPIWATCH Global Observatory, which provides daily outbreak updates to inform rapid epidemic response globally. Damian completed his Master of Global Health/Master of Infectious Diseases Intelligence (extension) at UNSW with a focus on disease surveillance and Intelligence, where he completed research led by Professor Raina MacIntyre and then undertook an internship at the Biosecurity Program. Before becoming a Senior Research Officer, Damian worked in the Sydney Public Health Unit, focusing on communicable disease control and emergency public health response and as an Intensive care nurse for NSW Health. Damian recently completed a Master of Health Leadership and Management at UNSW to further is leadership and management skils. In September 2023 Damian commenced his PhD under Professor Raina MacIntyre, A/Prof David Heslop and Prof Deepti Gurdasani. Damian's PhD research will investigate how early warning systems driven by artificial intelligence (AI) can prevent high-risk biothreats, including chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive events (CBRNE) from developing into serious epidemics. This research will aim to address the gap in early warning systems and threat detection of CBRNE events for Australia and build upon the Balvi Filantropic Fund’s goals to get epidemic intelligence into low-and-middle-income-countries.
Keywords: Public Health, Biosecurity, Infectious Diseases, Epidemiology, Surveillance, Artifical Intelligence, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing