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.

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.

Bala Venkatesh is Director of Intensive care at the Wesley Hospital, Pre-Eminent specialist in Intensive Care Medicine at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane, Professor of Intensive Care Medicine at the University of Queensland, and. at the University of New South Wales, and Professorial Fellow at the George Institute for Global Health, Sydney Australia. He is the Chairman of the Queensland Health Statewide Sepsis Steering Committee. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences

He has completed Fellowship training in Internal Medicine, Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine.  He then undertook a research degree from the University of Birminghan, UK which led to the award of an MD.  He pioneered the development of a continuous blood gas monitoring system which reached clinical application.

He served as the President for the College of Intensive Care Medicine of Australia and New Zealand between 2014-2016.  He led the international taskforce on gender equity in Intensive Care which influenced guidelines in the World federation of Intensive Care. As President of the College of Intensive Care, he led the task force on bullying and discrimination which have informed College policy.

He led the NHMRC funded multi-center international ADRENAL trial which is largest septic shock trial to date. This was published in the New England Journal of Medicine and ranked in the top 12 articles of 2018. He has served on several  Data Safety Monitoring Committees and on the Management committee of RCTs in sepsis. His research interests include glucocorticoid physiology in critical illness including the development of the idea of the "sick euadrenal state, sepsis and vitamin D in critical illness.

In 2020, following the Covid-19 pandemic, he contributed to the REMAP-CAP steroid trial design and development and was on its writing committee recently reported in JAMA, which influenced guideline development. He was instrumental in the development of the George Institute’s Covid-19 research program in India and played a  key role in the set up of the COVID Steroid 2 trial in India which was also published in JAMA. He is currently investigating the role of fludrocortisone in septic shock.

He has published more than 250 papers, 40 book chapters, and edited 2 books. He has supervised 8 PhD students. He is now a Level 3 NHMRC Investigator Fellow.

Dorrilyn Rajbhandari is a Senior Project Manager at the George Institute for Global Health. She is chair of the Project Manager Interest Group, and a member of the ANZICS Clinical Trial Group. As a Senior Project Manager, with many years of experience as a nurse clinician in intensive care research, she has vast experience in clinical trial management, operationalisation of protocols, including protocol development and design, CRF design, website and data management, multiple sub-studies, final analysis and resulting publications. She is a resource and mentor for colleagues.

Dorrilyn has successfully coordinated and managed many multi-centre, worldwide clinical trials in intensive care. She has successfully completed, within expected timelines, the CHEST study (7000 patients), ADRENAL study, a 3,800 patient study from 70 sites worldwide, including the ADRENAL-GEPS Sub-Study, with the largest severe sepsis cohort in precision medicine. The process provided experience in drug manufacture, regulatory requirements and regulatory approvals in multiple countries including importation and exportation processes and requirements, sample collections and transfers from around the world. Dorrilyn is currently project managing a number of studies; BLING III multicentre clinical outcome study, a 7000 patient study from 100 sites around the world. FluDReSS, a 300 patient study from 10 sites. HOPE, hydroxycholoquine prophylaxis in health care workers in India. 

Dorrilyn Rajbhandari has the expertise to implement, manage and complete efficiently within timelines, large multi-centre clinical trials with results published in high quality journals.

Qiang is Senior Biostatistician in Statistics Division at the George Institute and Conjoint Senior Lecturer at The University of New South Wales. He has a master degree in Biostatistics from the University of Sydney and a Bachelor degree in Public Health (Preventive Medicine) from Xi'an JiaoTong University (China). He is an accredited statistician by the Statistical Society of Australia since 2009. 

Prior to joining the George Institute in 2007, Qiang worked at the Woolcock institute of medical research (Australia) for one year and at the School of Public Health in Xi'an JiaoTong University (China) for six years. In his current position, Qiang Li is responsible for the design, analysis and reporting of numerous medical studies ranging from health surveys and epidemiological studies to multinational clinical trials in critical care, cardiovascular diseases, neurological and mental health illnesses, renal and metabolic diseases. In ten years at the George Institute, he has worked on approximately 20 major research studies including NHMRC funded studies as well as a number of clinical trials sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry. 

Bianca Barnier identifies as a Gumbaynggir woman and is a Project Manager within the Guunu-maana (Heal) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Program. Bianca has extensive experience in project management, reporting and finance, as well as community engagement.

Bianca coordinates and monitors projects from start to completion and is committed to ensuring that all projects developed with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are underpinned by equity, transparency and self-determination. Bianca is a proud mother of two and an active member of her community.