Professor Susana Vaz Nery
MSc, PhD
Susana has a multidisciplinary background, combining degrees and experience in biochemistry, neurosciences, health policy and international development, and field epidemiology in tropical diseases.
Following undergraduate studies in Portugal, Susana undertook her PhD in neuroscience (at NYU Medical Centre, New York, awarded in 2003). She began her career on tropical diseases as a malaria molecular parasitologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), with a EMBL fellowship. While based in London, she did malaria research in top African research centres: Kenya Medical Research Institute - Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KEMRI-WT, Kilifi, Kenya); Medical Research Council - The Gambia Unit; and the Joint Malaria Programme (based at KCMC - Moshi, Tanzania).
In 2007 she joined Malaria Consortium in Mozambique, as a monitoring and evaluation and public health specialist, providing technical support to the National Malaria Control Program.
Susana then moved to Angola as the scientific coordinator of a recently created health research centre (CISA Project), where she led a team of approximately 70 scientific and field staff.
In 2012 she re-joined academia and moved to Timor-Leste to work on the control of soil transmitted helminths and other tropical diseases, and to Canberra in 2015, as a senior research fellow at ANU, with her research funded by the NHMRC and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Susana has joined the Kirby Institute at UNSW in 2018, where she leads the Neglected Tropical Diseases research group, that uses intervention studies to generate evidence that can inform health policy changes for more effective and sustainable disease control strategies. Her research is funded by the NHMRC Her research is funded by the NHMRC (CIA in a CTCS and Partnership grant, CI in a CRE and CTCS grants), Fred Hollows Foundation, Bridges to Development and Mentor Initiative. She leads a team of 11 staff and students, and is a NHMRC Leadership Investigator Grant recipient.
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
Competitive GRANTS
- NHMRC Investigator Grant L1, $2.8M (2023-27), Optimizing strategies for control of neglected tropical diseases
- CI - NHMRC CTCS, $2.1M (2022-26), Can mass drug administration reduce the incidence of adverse perinatal outcomes and other health consequences of endemic sexually transmitted infections? A community effectiveness trial
- CI - NHMRC Partnership grant, $1.5M (2021-26), Control of neglected tropical diseases in the Pacific: integration of programs to increase their impact
- Campaign Effectiveness, Task Force for Global Health, $150,000 USD (2021-2022), Building the links between campaigns and PHC: Evaluating serosurveillance and PHC referral during integrated NTD campaigns in two countries of the Western Pacific
- UNSW, $100,000 AUD (2021), Interlude Grant
- CI - NHRMC Centre of Research Excellence APP1153727. $2.5M (2019-2023), Australian Centre for the Control and Elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases (ACE-NTDs)
- Department of Health, $1,300,000 (2018-2021), National Trachoma Surveillance and Reporting Unit
- CI - NHMRC Project Grant APP1139561. $1,336,408.20 (2018-2020), School versus community-based albendazole deworming for control of soil transmitted helminths in school-age children – a cluster randomised controlled trial
- CI - Government Partnerships for Development, DFAT. $6,000 (2016), Soil-transmitted helminthiases and related behaviours among schoolchildren in Myanmar
- CI - Excellence in Population Health Award, Research School of Population Health, Australian National University, $15,000 AUD (2015), Economic evaluation of patient costs associated with tuberculosis diagnosis and care in Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste
- Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges Explorations (OPP1119041) $100,000 USD (2015-16), Should integrated deworming and WASH programs for STH control be delivered in schools or the community?
- AI - NHMRC Partnership Project Grant. Partner: UBS Optimus Foundation. (APP1077138) $764,916 AUD (2014-2016), The effectiveness, acceptability and cost effectiveness of the 'BALatrine': a culturally acceptable latrine intervention in resource limited environments
- NHMRC Partnership Project Grant. Partner: WaterAid Australia. (APP1013713) 2011–2013 (delayed 2012-2015) $987,270 AUD, A cluster RCT of the impact of a community-based hygiene and sanitation program on infection with intestinal parasites following mass albendazole chemotherapy in Timor-Leste
Non-competitive GRANTS
- ARIA-RISE 2022 $545,130.41, Serological surveillance for vaccine preventable diseases in the Western Pacific Region
- Department of Health, $1,353,000 AUD. (2021-2024), National Trachoma Surveillance and Reporting Unit
- Bridges to Development, $322,000 AUD (2021/23), Monitoring and evaluation of the impact of mass drug administration on multiple NTDs in Vanuatu
- The Mentor Initiative. $175,000 AUD (2020-21), Prevalence of schistosomiasis and soil transmitted helminths (STH) in Angola (Uige, Huambo and Zaire): Assessment of impact after 5 years of school-based preventive chemotherapy
- Fred Hollows Foundation, $96,640 AUD (2020), Prevalence of ocular Chlamydia trachomatis infection and anti-Pgp3 antibodies in Choiseul, Solomon Islands
- Fred Hollows Foundation, $84,500 AUD (2019), Prevalence of ocular Chlamydia trachomatis infection and anti-Pgp3 antibodies in Nauru
- UNICEF, Papua New Guinea, $30,800 AUD (2017), Improving basic emergency obstetric and neonatal care through training and infrastructure support to community health workers in rural and remote regions of Papua New Guinea
- WHO Western Pacific Region, $15,000 AUD (2016), Economic evaluation of patient costs associated with tuberculosis diagnosis and care in Solomon Islands
- WHO Timor-Leste country office, $3,000 AUD (2016), Economic evaluation of patient costs associated with tuberculosis diagnosis and care in Timor-Leste
- Global Fund for TB, HIV and Malaria, $1,300 AUD (2016), Economic evaluation of patient costs associated with tuberculosis diagnosis and care in Timor-Leste
- Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, €1,000,000/year (2009-12), Management of 1M euros/year for setting up a research centre and initiating research activities (health and demographic surveillance system, verbal autopsy, baseline survey of malaria, intestinal parasites, schistosomiasis, anemia and malnutrition, and baseline survey of hypertension)
FELLOWSHIPS
- 1/2006 to 1/2007 (approx. $34,500), Post-doc Fellowship, Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), Portugal
- 1/2004 to 1/2006 (approx. $90,000), Long-term Post-doc Fellowship, European Molecular Biology Organization
- 9/1997 to 5/2002 (approx. $100,000), PhD Fellowship, Gulbenkian Foundation and the Portuguese Government (Foundation for Science and Technology), Portugal
- 1997 (approx. $7,500), Pre-doctoral Fellowship, Portuguese National Board for Scientific and Technological Research (JNICT)
- 1997 (approx. $7,500), Pre-doctoral Fellowship, Portugal-France Cooperation Program JNICT/INSERM (French National Institute for Health and Medical Research)
- 1996 (approx. $10,000) Undergraduate Scholarship, European Community Erasmus program
Since I joined the Kirby Institute, UNSW in April 2018 I have expanded my research program to include additional NTDs and countries. I currently lead the NTD research group, managing a team of 2 post-docs, 1 research assistant, 2 senior project officers, 2 PhD students and 1 MSc student.
Recently, I have been awarded a NHMRC Partnership grant ($1.5M,2021-26), on control of NTDs in the Pacific. I am a chief investigator (CI) in a NHMRC funded Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) for the control and elimination of NTDs ($2.5M AUD, 2018-23), also a CI in a CTCS NHMRC grant on the impact of MDA on STIs in Fiji ($2.1M, 22-27) and I have been awarded an Investigator grant L1 ($2.8M, 23-28).
Recent research projects:
- In 2017 I was awarded a $1.3M AUD (NHMRC) to compare the impact of school vs community distribution of albendazole in school-age children in the Vietnam.
- I co-lead studies in aetiology of fever (Ethiopia and Timor-Leste).
- I am lead investigator in studies investigating the effectiveness of ivermectin for STH and scabies control (Timor-Leste and Solomon Islands), trachoma surveys in Nauru and the Solomon Islands (Fred Hollows Foundation, $84.5k $96.6k AUD), impact assessments of control programs on schistosomiasis and STH in Angola ($175k AUD, Mentor) and of STH, scabies and yaws in Vanuatu ($253k AUD, Bridges to Development, NHMRC Partnership $1.5M).
- I am part of the Australian National Trachoma Surveillance and Reporting Unit (Department of Health, $1.3M AUD).
Prior to UNSW, upon re-joining academia in 2012, I coordinated a program of research implemented in Timor-Leste, that included:
1) intervention studies on the role of WASH on soil-transmitted helminths (STH) (NHMRC) and school vs community deworming (Gates);
2) spatial analysis of dengue and
3) patient costs associated with tuberculosis (RSPH-ANU & WHO).
Additional studies in Timor-Leste included: 1) Investigating zoonotic transmission of Ascaris species; 2) Assessment of environmental enteropathy; and 3) Efficacy of albendazole.
In Indonesia I was an associate investigator in a trial assessing the impact of a sanitation intervention on infection with STH (NHMRC).
In Myanmar I was involved in a pilot study looking at STH infection levels in school children (DFAT).
In Papua New Guinea I was co-investigator in a study evaluating the impact of an obstetric and neonatal care training program on the provision of these services (Unicef).
Consultancies
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2017
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Epidemiologist for TIP TOP project |
ISGlobal, Spain |
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2017 |
Vector Works Project/LLIN Durability Monitoring study in Mozambique (24 months follow-up)
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Tropical Health, UK |
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2016
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Development of a research protocol and tools for a baseline assessment of malaria and importation risk factors across borders of southern Africa.
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Elimination 8 Secretariat, South Africa |
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2007 |
Evaluation of the Togolese National Malaria Control program (3 weeks) |
Roll Back Malaria (RBM) – Togo |
My Research Supervision
RESEARCH STUDENT SUPERVISION
Current – PhD students
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2020 - |
Brandon Le, Ivermectin for STH control
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Primary supervisor, Kirby Institute, UNSW
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2019 - |
Paul Delos Trinos, Cost-effectiveness analysis of community deworming for STH control
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Joint supervisor, Kirby Institute, UNSW |
Past – PhD students
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2018 - 2021
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Techalew Woldkiros, Acute febrile illness in a context of declining malaria transmission
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Joint supervisor, Kirby Institute, UNSW |
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2012 - 2021 |
Manuel Lemos, Community versus school-based chemotherapy for the control of schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminths in children in rural Angola |
Co-supervisor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Portugal
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2015 - 2019 |
Naomi Clarke, Optimising strategies for STH control
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Chair/Principal Supervisor, RSPH, ANU |
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2016 - 2019 |
Eimear Cleary, The spatial epidemiology, and associations of, malaria infection with environmental, ecological and demographic drivers and identification of transmission hotspots.
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Co-Supervisor, RSPH, ANU
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Current – Masters
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2022 |
Alison Jaworski, Impact of Covid-19 on the implementation of NTD control programs |
Principal Supervisor (12UoC T2 and T3), Masters of International Public Health, UNSW, Australia |
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2022 |
Muzhgan Soultani, PCR vs Kato Katz for STH diagnostics in Angola |
Principal Supervisor (6UoC T2), Masters of Public Health, UNSW, Australia |
Past – Masters
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2022 |
Alexander Mann, Diagnostic accuracy of soil-transmitted helminth infection in Dak Lak province: A three-way comparison of quantitative PCR, Kato Katz and sodium nitrate flotation (discontinued due to moving overseas) |
Principal Supervisor (12UoC), Masters of International Public Health, UNSW, Australia |
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2022 |
Cindy Chong, A literature review of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the implementation of Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) control programs |
Principal Supervisor (6UoC T1), Masters of Public Health, UNSW, Australia |
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2021 |
Angus Hughes, Risk factors fo STH infection amongst primary-school aged children in Dak Lak province, Vietnam. |
Principal Supervisor (6UoC), Masters of Infectious Disease Intelligence, UNSW, Australia |
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2020 |
Aisling Byrne, The impact of hookworm infection and preventive chemotherapy with anthelminthic drugs on anaemia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
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Principal Supervisor, Masters of Global Health, University of Sydney, Australia
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2020 |
Clare Dyer, Factors impacting the effectiveness of MDA with azithromycin to eliminate trachoma: a case study from Malawi. |
Principal Supervisor, Masters of International Public Health, UNSW, Australia (won best student award) |
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2014/2015 |
Emma Zalcman, Zoonotic transmission of Ascaris species between pigs and humans in villages in Manufahi, Timor-Leste.
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Principal Supervisor, Masters in Veterinary Public Health, University of Sydney, Australia |
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2014 (Not completed) |
Kiran Varna, Patterns of drug prescription at reference hospitals in Timor-Leste |
Principal Supervisor, Masters in Public Health, University of Queensland, Australia |