Prof. Kaldor is a Scientia professor and program head of the Global Health Program at the Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales, Sydney. He has devoted more than 35 years to research into disease prevention and public health, with a primary focus on infectious diseases. After his doctoral studies in biostatistics (1982) he worked in cancer epidemiology at the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France. In 1989, he returned to Australia and took up a research appointment at the Kirby Institute. He has been with Kirby Institute since then and is largely responsible for initiating and developing all areas of epidemiology and population health.
Through his research innovation and success in funding applications, he has been able to expand the scope of his work well beyond the initial mission in HIV to encompass a wide, and still-expanding range of infectious diseases, particularly those linked to social or economic disadvantage. For much of this time he led the Kirby Institute’s surveillance program which has been one of its primary sources of national funding, devising and implementing surveillance in blood borne viral infections, sexually transmitted infections and more recently trachoma which have underpinned Australia’s disease control strategies in these key health areas. He has authored over 790 peer-reviewed publications that have been cited over 30,000 times.
Research areas that were introduced to the Kirby Institute by CI Kaldor, either directly through his own projects, or through strategic recruitment of new researchers, included infection-related cancer, viral hepatitis, sexually transmitted infections, the health of prisoners, health needs of people who inject illicit drugs, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, neglected tropical diseases, health research ethics and health economics.
