Professor Chris Blyth is a clinical academic, NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow and Centre Head of Wesfarmers Centre for Vaccines and Infectious Diseases, based at The Kids Research Institute Australia. He is Professor of Paediatrics with the School of Medicine, University of Western Australia, a Paediatric Infectious Diseases Physician at Perth Children’s Hospital and a Clinical Microbiologist with PathWest Laboratory.

Professor Blyth has nearly two decades experience in conducting clinical paediatric and infectious diseases research focusing on questions relevant to public policy and clinical practice. The majority of his research is in influenza, vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, pneumonia and vaccine safety. He is an Associate Member of the Australasian Academy of Health and Medical Science and sits on the Scientific Steering Committee of the Human Vaccines Project.

Professor Blyth co-leads the Wesfarmers Centre Infectious Disease Epidemiology team, a multidisciplinary group of researchers using administrative data, case-control and cohort studies, and clinical trials to investigate the burden of specific respiratory pathogens and identify better ways to diagnose, treatment and prevent acute respiratory infections in children. He collaborates broadly with other research groups within the Wesfarmers Centre, The Kids Research Institute Australia, Perth Children’s Hospital, other Australian paediatric tertiary hospitals and the Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research.