Lyn Gilbert

Professor Lyn Gilbert is an Honorary Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney. She earned her MBBS in 1965 and MD in 1991 from the University of Melbourne, with a thesis on infectious diseases in pregnancy and the newborn infant, and a Master’s degree in Bioethics from Monash University in 2003. As an infectious diseases physician and clinical microbiologist, her career spans lecturing in microbiology at the University of Melbourne from 1976 to 1978, clinical roles at the Royal Women’s Hospital and Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne from 1979 to 1990, and from 1991, serving as Director of the Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Laboratory Services at Westmead Hospital for 20 years and Director of CIDM-Public Health for 10 years until 2016. She was also Clinical Professor at the University of Sydney until 2016 and Clinical Lead for Infection Prevention and Control at Western Sydney Local Health District from 2010 to 2016.

Currently, she is a senior researcher at the Sydney Institute for Infectious Diseases, an affiliate of Sydney Health Ethics, and Consultant Emeritus at Westmead Hospital. Her research specializations include the diagnosis, surveillance, prevention, ethics, and control of communicable diseases of public health importance, such as emerging infections, vaccine-preventable diseases, healthcare-associated infections, antimicrobial resistance via One Health approaches, and infection prevention using video-reflexive ethnography for personal protective equipment training and biocontainment. With continuous NHMRC funding since 1987, she has authored over 350 peer-reviewed publications, including 'Sustained fall in inpatient MRSA prevalence after a video-reflexive ethnography project' (2020), 'Enablers of, and barriers to, optimal glove and mask use for routine care in the emergency department' (2020), and 'One Health and the Politics of Antimicrobial Resistance' (2017). Major awards include Officer of the Order of Australia (AO, 2017) for service to medical research, tertiary education, and public health policy; Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (FAHMS, 2023); and honorary life memberships in the Australian Society for Microbiology and Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases. She chaired the Infection Control Expert Group (2014-2021), served on the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, was inaugural chair of the Public Health Laboratory Network (1997-2010), and led COVID-19 outbreak reviews in aged care facilities (2020-2021).

Professional Email: lyn.gilbert@sydney.edu.au