Inaugural Professorial Lecture – Professor Katrina Sharples

Katrina is a biostatistician, with research interests in clinical trials and epidemiology. She studied at the University of Auckland, and gained a PhD in Biostatistics from the University of Washington in Seattle. She has been a co-investigator on a range of projects, notably in cancer epidemiology, cancer trials, infectious diseases and drug safety. Her interest is in the nature of evidence, the influence of random variation, and how we obtain reliable evidence from research to improve health and well-being.

She co-led the establishment of the Health Research Council of New Zealand Data and Safety Monitoring Committee, which monitors investigator initiated clinical trials funded by the Health Research Council. She is a founding member of Cancer Trials New Zealand led by Professor Michael Findlay, of the Pharmacoepidemiology Research Network led by Associate Professor Lianne Parkin, and is the biostatistician with the Centre for International Health co-led by Professors John Crump and Philip Hill.

This lecture will be followed with light refreshments, tea, coffee & juice.