Associate Professor Carolyn Nickson leads a group of breast cancer researchers at the Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, as an extension to her role as lead of the Breast Cancer Policy and Evaluation stream at the Daffodil Centre, a joint venture between the University of Sydney and Cancer Council NSW.

She is a cancer epidemiologist with a background in mathematics, recognised for her expertise in cancer screening evaluation and her novel and multidisciplinary approaches to solving problems in this domain.

She has led major multidisciplinary research and policy projects, including the ROSA project (2018-2023) which was the first initiative in Australia to combine evidence reviews, data analysis, population modelling, health service provider surveys, policy analysis and stakeholder engagement to systematically investigate options for risk-based breast screening in Australian health policy and practice.www.cancer.org.au/go/rosabreast.

Her current projects include cohort studies of breast cancer risk factors and screening outcomes, modelling genetic testing to help direct higher-risk people to targetted screening programs, and clinical collaborations evaluating contrast-based breast imaging for routine surveillance. Her team is located in Melbourne and Sydney.