Asha Bowen

Professor Asha Bowen OAM is a Clinical Professor in the UWA Medical School, Division of Paediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Western Australia, and a paediatric infectious disease specialist at Perth Children’s Hospital. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and Environmental Studies from the University of Tasmania in 1997, Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from the University of Sydney in 2001, Diploma of Child Health from the University of New South Wales in 2004, Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 2010, and Doctor of Philosophy from Charles Darwin University in 2015. As Team Lead of the Healthy Skin and ARF Prevention team at The Kids Research Institute Australia, she oversees research focused on paediatric infectious diseases, including impetigo, scabies, skin infections caused by Streptococcus pyogenes and Staphylococcus aureus, and rheumatic fever prevention in Aboriginal children. Her efforts emphasize practice-changing clinical trials, such as the SToP (See, Treat, Prevent) trial addressing skin sores and scabies in remote Western Australia, and the SNAP-PY trial evaluating treatments for paediatric Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections. She has also contributed to COVID-19 research, including as Co-Chair of the Paediatric and Adolescent Panel of the National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce from 2020 to 2023.

Professor Bowen has attracted over $108 million in funding for more than 100 project grants, including $18 million as Chief Investigator A across 47 grants. Her accolades include the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2024 for service to medicine as a paediatric infectious diseases clinician-scientist, Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences in 2024, the 3M Eureka Prize for Emerging Leader in Science in 2020, continuous NHMRC fellowships since 2010 leading to a Leadership 1 Investigator Award from 2025 to 2029, L’Oréal UNESCO Women in Science Fellowship in 2018, and WA Tall Poppy Science Award in 2019. Notable publications encompass “A whole of country analysis of antimicrobial stewardship resources, activities and barriers for children in Australian hospitals pre- and post COVID-19” (Journal of Hospital Infection, 2026), “Koolungar (Children) Moorditj (Strong) Healthy Skin Project Part II: Skin Health in Urban-Living Australian Aboriginal Children” (Pediatric Dermatology, 2026), and the SToP trial protocol (BMJ Open, 2019). She has supervised more than 35 paediatric trainees, 13 Honours students, 9 Masters students, and 6 PhD students to completion, while serving as President of the World Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases and mentoring emerging clinician-researchers through outreach to over 3000 students.

Professional Email: asha.bowen@uwa.edu.au