Professor Berwanger leads the Institute’s work in the UK in partnership with Imperial College London, with a core focus on health systems science, multimorbidity, women’s health, large-scale clinical trials and planetary health. He is also building on his personal research interests in exploring innovative clinical trial models, as well as the conduct of efficient implementation science studies.

Prior to joining The George Institute, he was Director of the Academic Research Organisation (ARO) of the Albert Einstein Israelite Hospital in São Paulo, Brazil. An esteemed cardiologist and clinical trialist, Professor Berwanger has extensive research and managerial experience and has led large-scale, randomised clinical trials nationally and internationally across many countries including Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, China, Chile, Argentina, Peru and Colombia. Trials led by him have been published in high-impact journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, JAMA and the BMJ.

Professor Jane Hirst is Chair in Global Women’s Health at The George Institute for Global Health, UK, and the School of Public Health at Imperial College. She is also Visiting Professor in Global Women's Health at the University of Oxford and Honorary Consultant Obstetrician, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

She is an active clinical researcher with projects focussed on global women’s health and investigating novel approaches to improve health care delivery. She has a particular interest in preventing cardiometabolic complications in women after high-risk pregnancy conditions such as gestational diabetes and preeclampsia.

Professor Hirst is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow. Her Fellowship title is “Pregnancy as an opportunity to improve women’s lifelong health”. She is PI for the SMART Health Pregnancy trial in India. This trial is being conducted in two rural districts in two states, and is evaluating a community-based intervention and digital clinical decision support tool to improve screening, management and referral of high risk conditions during pregnancy and in the in first year after birth.

Dr Kotwal is a clinical nephrologist at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney; Program Head of the Renal and Metabolic Division at The George Institute for Global Health and a Conjoint Senior Lecturer at UNSW. Her research interests include novel and pragmatic clinical trials and she is passionate about increasing clinical trial access for patients with kidney disease and personalised medicine. Dr Kotwal is the Academic Project Director for the GKPTN and the principal investigator for the Glomerular Disease Registry and Biobank in Sydney. She has expertise in translating research into clinical practice and in-depth knowledge of statistical techniques, epidemiology and clinical trial design.

Christine Jenkins is Program Head, Respiratory at The George Institute for Global Health; Professor of Respiratory Medicine at UNSW Sydney and Clinical Professor in the Concord Clinical School, University of Sydney.

Christine has been Principal Investigator and has led many investigator-initiated and competitively funded clinical trials in airways disease. Christine recently retired from clinical practice but continues to teach and supervise medical students and higher degree postgraduate students. She has had major roles in advocacy and leadership for lung health in Australia, most recently chairing Lung Foundation Australia, where she continues as a director, and previously chairing the National Asthma Campaign and the Federal Government’s National Asthma Advisory Group. She has participated in many government advisory groups and guidelines and implementation initiatives to enhance resources, skills, capacity and clinical outcomes in airways disease.

Christine’s area of research interest is the clinical management of airways disease and patient-reported outcomes in response to therapeutic interventions, and she is currently implementing trials in asthma and COPD management and pulmonary rehabilitation in Australia and Asia. Her current work has also examined the role of telemedicine in specialist care during the pandemic and she is overseeing an ambitious study to develop a digital application for primary care to improve the diagnosis and evidence-based management of breathlessness.

In 2002 Christine was made a Member of the Order of Australia in recognition of services to respiratory medicine as a physician, administrator and educator, especially in the field of asthma education. In 2022, she was awarded the Governor General’s Medallion by His Excellency General the Honourable David Hurley AC DSC. This award recognises significant contributions to charities during the 2020 and 2021 pandemic years and is in recognition of Christine’s volunteer expertise, generosity, and exceptional leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic as Chair of Lung Foundation Australia.

Christine is a member and previous president of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand, and a member of the American Thoracic Society, European Respiratory Society and the Asia-Pacific Society of Respirology.