School of Nursing and Midwifery

Dr Amanuel Gebremedhin

Amanuel is a Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellow within the School of Nursing and Midwifery and has an Adjunct Research Fellow position with the Curtin School of Population Health at Curtin University.

Dr Gebremedhin’s research interests encompass maternal and perinatal health with a particular focus on adverse pregnancy outcomes, their immediate and long-term morbidity, pre-conception exposures and post-conception outcomes, discovery and application of maternal biological clock and application of causal methods and quasi-experimental epidemiological designs. He leverages his expertise in population-based data linkage studies utilising advanced statistics and machine learning algorithms to predict perinatal outcomes and advance maternal health research.

Background:

Amanuel obtained his PhD in Epidemiology (Oct 2021) from Curtin University. His PhD project focused on the effect of birth spacing on pregnancy complications using high-quality population-based linked data from WA. Findings from his PhD challenged traditional recommendations on birth spacing and have been influential in shaping international policy documents and clinical guidelines. He received his MPH in Reproductive Health (Jimma University, 2012) and bachelor’s degree in public health (Mekelle University, 2007) in Ethiopia. Previously he has held postdoctoral positions at Curtin School of Population Health and the Wesfarmers Centre for Vaccines and Infectious Diseases, Telethon Kids Institute, Australia. He has also been a faculty member at Jimma University (Ethiopia), involved in research, community health services and teaching.

Professional Associations:

Membership

• 2023 Member, Health Services Research Association of Australia & New Zealand (HSAANZ)
• 2021 Member, Australasian Epidemiology Association (AEA), Australia
• 2020 Member, Australian Based Ethiopian Researchers Network (ABReN), Australia
• 2019 Member, Society for Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiologic Research (SPER)
• 2019 Member, Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA)
• 2019 Member, Society for Epidemiologic Research (SER)
• 2018 Member, International Population Data Linkage Network (IPDLN)
• 2015 Member, Organization for study of sex differences (OSSD)
• 2015 Member, Global Society of Tigray Scholars (GSTS)
• 2015 Member, International society of quality of life (ISOQOL)
• 2011 Member, Public Health Officers’ Association of Ethiopia (PHOAE)
• 2010 Member, Ethiopian Public Health Association (EPHA)

Leadership contribution

• 2023 Scientific Dissemination Committee member, Society for Epidemiologic Research (SER), US
• 2023 Committee Member, Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA), WA branch
• 2022 West Australian Scientific Steering Committee – Born Strong Initiative
• 2021 Founding member, Australian-based Ethiopian Researchers Network (ABReN)
• 2012 Founding member, Public Health Officers Association of Ethiopia, actively served as university (JU) lead (2012-2014) and continues as a lifetime member

Awards and Recognition:

• 2024 - VC Research fellowship, ECU
• 2023 - The Gro Harlem Brundtland Visiting Scholarship, Centre for Fertility and Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Norway
• 2023 - Travel award for attending 15^th World Congress of Endometriosis, Edinburgh, Scotland- $4328- Oral presenter
• 2023 - WA Near-miss Awards: Emerging Leaders-2022- $100,000- CIA
• 2022 - Raine Research Collaboration award, Co-funded by the Raine Foundation, BrightSpark Foundation, and the Stan Perron Charitable Foundation- $29,607- CIA
• 2021 - Registration grant for presenting at ReSViNET's 6th conference: “RSVVW'21 - A Global Conference on Novel RSV Preventive and Therapeutic Interventions (Nov 2021: Role: Poster presenter)- US$605
• 2019 - Travel bursary for presenting at symposium organized at the Society for Epidemiologic Research (SER) 52 annual meeting 2019 in Minnesota, USA (June 2019: Role: Symposium presenter)- US$1,000
• 2018 - Curtin Student Guild’s PhD conference grant (Sept 2018; Role: Oral presenter)- AU$500
• 2018 - Travel bursary for attending 2018 IPDLN Conference in Banff, Alberta, Canada (Sept 2018; Role: Oral presenter)-AU$500
• 2017-2021 - CIPRS: Curtin International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (Sept 2017; Role: PhD student)- AU$93,387
• 2017 - “Research Grants -Short-Term Grants' for a study or research trip or an internship in Germany”, Universität München (LMU), Munich, Germany; funder- DAAD: German Academic Exchange Service (Jan-March 2017)- €3,750
• 2015- NIH-Sponsored Travel Award for attending 2015 OSSD conference, Stanford University, USA (April 2015; Role: Poster presenter)- US$500
• 2015 - Excellence in Teaching Award, Jimma University, Ethiopia (June 2015)
• 2015 - Scholarship award for attending the 1st Annual CIH conference on “Health in Vulnerable population” Munich, Germany (July 2015; Role: Poster presenter)- €500
• Travel Award for attending International Conference, integration for impact, Reproductive health and HIV services in Sub Saharan Africa; Nairobi, Kenya (2012; Role: attendant)- US$1000.

Qualifications

• Doctor of Philosophy, Curtin University of Technology, 2021.

Research Projects

• A Novel Maternal Epigenetic Age Estimator to Promote Healthy Pregnancy Outcomes, Department of Health WA, WA Near-miss Awards: Emerging Leaders Program, 2024 ‑ 2026, $397,224.
• Development of a New Phenotype Maternal Epigenetic Age Estimator as a Risk Factor for Perinatal Morbidity (NHMRC Application 2017377), Department of Health WA, WA Near-miss Awards: Emerging Leaders Program, 2024, $94,796.

Research Student Supervision