Rate My Professor Emma Synnott

Emma Synnott, also known as Emma-Leigh Synnott, is a consultant physician in Rehabilitation Medicine with affiliations to Curtin University in the Faculty of Health Sciences, including the School of Allied Health, Curtin School of Population Health, and Curtin Medical School. Over the past decade, she has worked extensively within the Western Australia health system in strategy, policy, research, advocacy, and operational roles across local, state, and national levels. Her contributions span clinical practice, leadership, and interdisciplinary research addressing critical health challenges.

Synnott's research specializations lie at the nexus of rehabilitation medicine, planetary health, climate justice, and disabilities justice. Key publications include "Embodied Experiences of Thermal Injustice: Truth-Telling Through Disabilities Justice" (2025, Annals of the American Association of Geographers), co-authored with Curtin University researchers; "Safety and efficacy of intensive task-specific training in people with spinal cord injury: a phase 3, pragmatic, randomised, assessor-blinded, superiority trial" (2026, The Lancet Neurology), evaluating intensive rehabilitation interventions; "Research lessons during the COVID-19 pandemic: collecting longitudinal physical and mental health outcomes" (2022, Archives of Public Health), part of the LATER-19 coinvestigator group at Curtin School of Allied Health; and "Greater In-Hospital Care and Early Rehabilitation Needs in People with COVID-19 in Western Australia" (2022, Journal of Clinical Medicine). She co-presented on energy precarity and thermal injustices at the Petrocultures 2024 conference in Perth and facilitated workshops on activist practices for climate resistance. Currently, she serves as Senior Research Fellow at the Monash Sustainable Development Institute, WA Chair for Doctors for the Environment Australia, active member of the Climate Justice Union, and participant in the NHMRC-funded WA Healthy Environment and Lives Research Network, advancing system transformations for just climate adaptation.