Michael Meehan

I am a Senior Biostatistics Lecturer in Public Health and Tropical Medicine within the College of Medicine and Dentistry at James Cook University (JCU). My work spans both teaching and research, with a focus on infectious disease modelling, epidemiology, and statistical methodology. I teach undergraduate research methods and postgraduate biostatistics, and contribute to statistical consulting for health research across the university.

I received my PhD in Astrophysics and Cosmology from JCU, where my research investigated the nature and abundance of dark matter and dark energy in alternative cosmological models. I subsequently transitioned into infectious disease modelling, applying computational and statistical approaches to problems in epidemiology and public health.

My research focuses on the development and application of modelling frameworks for infectious diseases, including genomic-driven and phylodynamic methods. I have contributed to national and international COVID-19 modelling efforts, including work on transmission dynamics, vaccination strategies, and public health interventions. This work has informed policy through contributions to national modelling consortia and international collaborations, including with the World Health Organization.

More broadly, my interests include modelling emerging and drug-resistant pathogens, improving methodological approaches to inference from complex epidemiological data, and supporting applied health research through statistical collaboration. I have led and contributed to externally funded research projects and continue to supervise higher degree research students in this area.