Team
Centre directors
Professor Fadi Charchar is our centre Director. He is a Professorial Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne and Visiting Chair at the University of Leicester, UK. He is the Vice-President of the International Society of Hypertension and President of the International Society of Heart Research. Fadi previously completed a Wellcome Trust Fellowship, an NHMRC Career Development Fellowship and a British Heart Foundation Lectureship in the UK. Fadi is an internationally recognised expert in understanding the genetic mechanisms of cardiovascular disease with publications in the Lancet, Nature, Nature Genetics. His research includes findings that the human Y chromosome contributes to hypertension and coronary artery disease.
Fadi leads the Personalised / Individual Health research stream.
E. f.charchar@federation.edu.au
T. +61 3 5327 6098
Research stream directors
Professor Colette Browning is a recognised leader in psychology and health. Colette holds Honorary Professorships at Peking University and the Australian National University and is a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society. Colette has international research and policy expertise in ageing, primary care, behaviour change and implementation research. Her research focuses on healthy ageing, chronic disease management, mental health and consumer involvement in health care decision-making. She has over 260 publications and has held research grants to the value of $20 million.
Colette leads the Centre’s Population Health research stream.
E. c.browning@federation.edu.au
T. +61 3 5327 6374
Professor Madhu Chetty, from Institute of Innovation, Science and Sustainability, is internationally recognised for application of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and mathematical modelling in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. His novel gene regulatory network (GRN) models for cyanobacteria have been applied for carbon sequestration studies and the ML-based protein structure prediction methods are suitable for computer-aided drug design. He is Vice-Chair of Victorian/Tasmanian section of the international professional body, IEEE and Associate Editor of Biosystems journal. He had academic positions at the University of Melbourne, Monash, IIT Bombay and VNIT India.
Madhu leads the Centre’s Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning research stream.
E. madhu.chetty@federation.edu.au
T. +61 3 5122 8148
Academic staff
Dr Huy Nguyen is a clinical doctor and PhD specializing in biostatistics, epidemiology, and research methods. Since 2021, he has joined as a biostatistician at Federation University. Through his career, he has been a successful co-developer, coordinator, senior researcher and biostatistician of more than 30 various projects with a total of over US$11 million. Recently, Dr. Nguyen successfully co-developed three Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) management projects, funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) with grants totaling US$2.04 million (Grant numbers 1D71TW010872-01, 1D43TW011394-01, and U01CA261604-01). He currently works as a biostatistician in the THRIVE “The Healthy Regions InterVEntion” project [AU$3.6 million funded by RRC] to manage chronic diseases in rural and regional Victoria. He is productive with over 90 publications in high-impact journals, including Lancet, eClinicalMedicine Lancet, and The Lancet Regional Health - Western Pacific. Further, Dr. Nguyen has successfully supervised 15 undergraduate and medical theses, 25 master’s theses, 2 PhD dissertations, and 5 international internships. He has received numerous awards, including an outstanding PhD thesis award, from both Vietnamese and Australian institutions. ORCID iD
E. h.vannguyen@ederation.edu.au
T. +61 404 313 785
Dr Priscilla Prestes is a research fellow based at, Mt Helen Campus, working in cardiovascular genomics. Her research interests are the genetic and epigenetic variations related to high blood pressure and hypertrophic hearts. Priscilla has recently been awarded a Victoria Fellowship. ORCID ID
E. p.prestes@federation.edu.au
T. +61 3 5327 6670
Dr Amanda Young is a Research Fellow at Federation University Australia whose work spans community health, digital health innovation and chronic disease prevention. Trained in the behavioural sciences with a PhD from Monash University, her research focuses on the psychological, social and behavioural factors that influence health outcomes and participation following illness, injury and chronic disease. Dr Young has extensive experience across qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods research and works at the intersection of behavioural science, public health and health service design. Her research interests include chronic ill-health risk prediction and prevention, psychosocial determinants of health, and the development of person-centred tools to support prevention and long-term condition management. Earlier in her career she worked as a Scientific Researcher at the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety in the United States and has held academic and research appointments at Monash University and La Trobe University. She has authored more than 60 peer-reviewed publications examining work disability, rehabilitation, and the social and behavioural factors that shape health and participation. Dr Young has experience collaborating with healthcare providers, community organisations and research partners to design and evaluate programs aimed at improving population health and strengthening community wellbeing.
Dr Kerrie Shandley is an early career researcher, registered psychologist, and member of the Australian Psychological Society. Her primary research interests are in the areas of mental health, the development and evaluation of digital health interventions, chronic and rare disease and disability. Dr Shandley has published over 30 journal articles and book chapters and previously worked for over a decade with people experiencing substance abuse issues, gambling problems, mental ill-health, and clinical conditions. ORCID iD
E. k.shandley@federation.edu.au
T. +61 3 5327 8013
Coordinator and Support Officer
Xin Chen is the HITC Coordinator and Support Officer based at the Mt Helen Campus, please contract her for all Centre related matters and general inquiries.
E. Admin.HITC@federation.edu.au
T. +61 3 5327 9174
Our members
HITC has over 120 members undertaking research across all streams. See our members' page for more information on their research experience and expertise.