Rate My Professor Abdulla Mamun

Professor Abdullah Mamun is Professor of life course epidemiology and intergenerational perspectives in the School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine at the University of Queensland. He earned a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science (coursework) from the University of Dhaka, and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Groningen. Internationally recognised as a leader in his field, Mamun serves as Principal Investigator of the Mater-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy (MUSP) cohort, where he has led respiratory and cardiovascular epidemiology research for over 14 years. This includes conducting a 30-year follow-up of the MUSP offspring cohort (Generation 2) and the first follow-up of the children-of-the-offspring cohort (Generation 3). His approach integrates individual risk factors with broader contextual determinants to understand health outcomes across the life course. Mamun has expanded his research to low- and middle-income countries, investigating rapid socio-economic development, demographic transitions, and epidemiological shifts. His studies highlight critical life stages, early life determinants of health, and the role of parents—especially mothers—as role models for offspring health and well-being from infancy through young adulthood. Research confirms that weight management and obesity prevention should begin before or during pregnancy, with socioeconomic, family, and environmental factors tracking across generations to influence future health.

Mamun holds the position of Principal Research Fellow at the UQ Poche Centre for Indigenous Health. He has secured national competitive grants, including NHMRC Career Development Fellowships (Level 1, 2008-2011; Level 2, 2012-2016), UQ Foundation Research Excellence Awards (2009), NHF Grants-in-Aid (2008), and a $5 million NHMRC Synergy Grant in 2026. With over 200 peer-reviewed publications, many in high-impact journals such as The Lancet, his work includes contributions to Global Burden of Disease studies, for example, 'Burden of 375 diseases and injuries, risk-attributable burden of 88 risk factors, and healthy life expectancy in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2023' (2025) and 'Global fertility in 204 countries and territories, 1950-2021, with forecasts to 2100' (2024). Other key papers address adverse childhood experiences among Indigenous populations, gestational diabetes in Indigenous groups, and spatio-temporal analysis of water contaminants. Cited over 80,000 times, his influence spans maternal and child health, non-communicable disease prevention, nutritional epidemiology, and methodological advances in longitudinal studies, data linkage, and meta-analyses. Mamun has supervised 16 PhD students to completion as primary advisor in the last five years.