BIG DATA RESEARCH IN MATERNAL, PERINATAL AND RENAL HEALTH EPIDEMIOLOGY
Dr Erandi Hewawasam
Research Fellow,
National Perinatal Epidemiology and Statistics Unit
Centre for Big Data Research in Health
UNSW Sydney, Australia
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Sydney, Australia | June 2026
Dr Erandi Hewawasam is a Research Fellow at the National Perinatal Epidemiology and Statistics Unit within the Centre for Big Data Research in Health at University of New South Wales (UNSW). Her work focuses on maternal and reproductive health, chronic diseases (e.g., kidney disease, endometriosis), and early-life outcomes. She is the Program Manager for the Fertility Medicine Data Asset for Australia (FM-DATA), an MRFF-funded national infrastructure project linking fertility, hospital, Medicare, pharmaceutical, and perinatal datasets covering more than 40 million individuals. She also coordinates the Early Life Course Platform, integrating around 20 New South Wales and Australian federal administrative datasets to support population health research.
Before joining UNSW, Dr Hewawasam spent over five years at the Australia and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant Registry (ANZDATA) at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) as a post-doctoral research fellow and program manager for Pregnancy and Kidney Research Australia (PKRA). In these roles, she led patient-centred research at the intersection of pregnancy and chronic kidney disease (CKD), using data linkage, registry analysis, cohort studies, and surveys to improve parenthood outcomes for Australians with CKD. Her work has informed national clinical guidelines, been embedded into renal clinical care and specialist training programs, and contributed to international nephrology education initiatives.
Dr Hewawasam has published more than 40 peer-reviewed papers in leading journals and secured more than $275,000 in competitive funding. In 2025, she received the prestigious James McWha Rising Star Award, one of University of Adelaide’s Distinguished Alumni Awards, recognising exceptional early-career alumni demonstrating leadership and significant impact in their profession and community. Alongside her research, she supervises higher degree students, mentors medical trainees, contributes to teaching, and advocates for inclusive opportunities for women in science as a UNSW STEMM Champion 2025.
Source: Supplied
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8320-3668
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Using Gut Microbes to Reduce Blood Pressure
Professor Francine Marques is an National Health and Medical Research Council Emerging Leader, Viertel Charitable Foundation, and National Heart Foundation Fellow.
She leads the Hypertension Research Laboratory at Monash University and has published more than 120 peer-reviewed papers in journals such as Nature Reviews Cardiology, Nature Medicine, Nature Cardiovascular Research, and Circulation.
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Hormone receptor positive breast cancer and therapy resistance
Prof Elgene Lim is a medical oncologist at St Vincent’s Hospital and Head of the Connie Johnson Breast Cancer Research Lab at the Garvan Institute. Following his PhD at the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute where he identified the aberrant cells in carriers of the BRCA1 mutant gene, a hereditary breast cancer syndrome as the culprit cells giving rise to breast cancer, he furthered his research and clinical training at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. He was awarded the National Breast Cancer Foundation Practitioner Fellowship in 2014 and returned from Boston to Australia. In 2017, he was awarded the inaugural National Breast Cancer Foundation Endowed Chair, and subsequently appointed the Principal Cancer Theme Lead at UNSW.
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3D printing, bioprinting & stem cell tech in articular cartilage regeneration and treating osteosarcoma
Associate Professor Claudia Di Bella is an academic orthopaedic surgeon based in Melbourne, specialising in orthopaedic oncology and complex joint reconstruction. Originally trained at the world-renowned Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute in Bologna, Italy, (IRCCS Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli) she moved to Australia in 2010. She was awarded Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 2013 and Fellowship of Australian Orthopaedic Association (AOA) in 2014.
