Emily Banks

Professor Emily Banks is a public health physician and epidemiologist with interest and expertise in large scale cohort studies, pharmacoepidemiology, women’s health, Aboriginal Health and healthy ageing. She currently leads the Epidemiology for Policy and Practice group at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University and is Scientific Director of the 45 and Up Study.

She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences and is currently a member of the Independent Oversight Panel for the Cholesterol Treatment Trialists’ Adverse Event Collaboration. She was Chair of the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Medicines from 2010-2016. She was based in the UK from 1995-2003, where she was Deputy Director of the Cancer Research UK Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford and joint Principal Investigator of the Million Women Study.

Professor Banks' awards include: the UK Woman of Achievement in Science and Technology (2000); the National Breast Cancer Foundation Patron’s Award for services to breast cancer research (2014); the Medical Journal of Australia/MDA National Prize for Excellence in Medical Research (2015); AFR/Wespac 100 Women of Influence (2016); and Australian Citation for University Teaching (2017).

The main emphasis of her work has been in using cohort study methodology to identify potentially modifiable factors affecting individual and population health in different settings and in quantifying their effects, to inform improvements in health and health care.