The Children’s Hospital at Westmead | Sydney Medical School
Reference no. 1344/0816

The University of Sydney is Australia’s first university and has an outstanding global reputation for academic and research excellence. We employ over 7600 permanent staff, supporting over 60,000 students.

We are seeking a Chair in Translational Childhood Medicine who will be charged with the task of demonstrably improving the health and wellbeing of current and future generations of Australian children. The new Chair will lead the way in prevention by directing population-level studies into the determinants of childhood illness and disease.

The Chair will provide internationally-recognised academic leadership, as well as clinical leadership, in areas pertaining to child population health and wellbeing with a focus on the Western Sydney community. In NSW, one third of the population aged 0-19 years live in Greater Western Sydney, with the actual number of 0-19 year olds in Western Sydney predicted to increase by over 40% in the next 15 years. There are enormous research and practice opportunities with working in child population health in the culturally rich and diverse communities of Western Sydney and beyond.

In partnership with the Sydney Medical School and Charles Perkins Centre, the Chair will be situated at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead Clinical School within The Children’s Hospital at Westmead (CHW); CHW is the largest tertiary children’s hospital in NSW, which forms part of the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network (SCHN).

Research into childhood health and medicine across the University’s network of faculties, institutes and hospitals is conducted on a vast scale. The Chair will work within this network and with partnerships across SCHN, the Western Sydney Local Health District, the Charles Perkins Centre, Sydney Health Partners, and the Kids Research Institute, also  located within CHW, to translate this research into tangible outcomes that benefit as many children as possible, as quickly as possible. The Chair will also be expected to be involved in facilitating interagency collaboration (including education, community services, early childhood services and antenatal services) for the early years of a child’s life, including the antenatal period.

The Chair will also lead one of the Charles Perkins Centre’s four research domains – Populations – and will bring to it a special focus on children, which will thereby become a defining feature of the Charles Perkins Centre program. Population health research deploys epidemiology, population surveys and genetic analysis, and cohort studies in order to understand and describe illness and disease at the broadest level. Additionally, the Chair will work closely with and have an oversight role with the Baby 1000 Study, a flagship project for the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre which hopes to identify the modifiable risks and interventions prior to, and during, pregnancy that impact on later health.

Term

The position is full-time, fixed-term for five years with the potential for renewal and subject to the completion of a satisfactory probation for new appointees. A competitive salary package will be negotiated with the successful applicants. The Chair will also be eligible for clinical appointment at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead.

Apply

For more information on the position, faculty and University, please request the candidate brochure by contacting Ms Nicole Pearson, Recruitment Administrator – Senior Academic, at nicole.pearson@sydney.edu.au

All applications must be submitted via the University of Sydney careers website.  Visit sydney.edu.au/recruitment and search by the reference number for more information and to apply.

Closing date: 11.30pm 16 November 2016 (Sydney time)

The University is an equal opportunity employer committed to equity, diversity and social inclusion. Applications from equity target groups, including women and people with disabilities are encouraged. As the University of Sydney has established a scheme to increase the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff employed across the institution, applications from people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent are also encouraged.

© The University of Sydney