Dr Nusrat Homaira is a medically trained respiratory epidemiologist with over 15 years of experience in child health research across both low- and high-income settings. She currently leads the Epidemiology of Common Lung Diseases of Childhood (CoLD) research program within the discipline, where her work focuses on the intersection of early childhood respiratory infections and chronic respiratory conditions in high-risk populations. Her research spans epidemiology, health systems, and policy, and has directly informed clinical guidelines and public health strategies both nationally and internationally.
Dr Homaira has extensive methodological expertise, including outbreak investigations, surveillance design, and the use of large-scale linked administrative health data. She has led and contributed to a wide range of studies—from implementation evaluations and RCTs to diagnostic studies, longitudinal cohorts, and systematic reviews.
She previously held an NHMRC Early Career Fellowship and is an adjunct faculty member and course coordinator (Epidemiology) in the Master of Public Health program at BRAC University, Bangladesh. Before joining UNSW, she worked as an Assistant Scientist at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b).
Dr Homaira is an elected council member of the International Society of Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses (ISIRV), Deputy Convenor of the Respiratory Infectious Disease Special Interest Group of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand (TSANZ), and a member of TSANZ’s Research Sub-Committee and Lung Health Faculty. She also serves as an Academic Editor for PLOS ONE and PLOS Global Health, and is a steering committee member of the Triple I (Infection, Immunity and Inflammation) group within UNSW.