John Lynch is a Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Adelaide, South Australia. He is a Visiting Professor of Epidemiology in the Population Health Sciences at the University of Bristol in the UK. He spent 20 years working in North America and before returning to Australia in 2009 he held professorial positions at the University of Michigan in the USA, and at McGill University in Canada.
He is an internationally recognized scholar in epidemiology and public health. In 2005 he was awarded a Canada Research Chair in Population Health. In 2007 his work in epidemiology and public health was recognized with an Honorary Doctoral Degree in Medical Science from the University of Copenhagen. In 2009 he was awarded a prestigious NHMRC Australia Fellowship. In 2015 he was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.
In 2019 he won Research Australia’s Award for Data Innovation for developing the South Australian Better Evidence Better Outcomes Linked Data platform (SA BEBOLD). BEBOLD is a linked administrative data platform containing 29 whole-population birth cohorts starting in 1991 and contains data sources spanning perinatal, hospital, education, child protection, housing, mental health, drug and alcohol, youth justice, corrections, and social welfare (Centrelink).
He has over 350 academic publications that have attracted over 52,000 citations and a Google H index of 106. From 2014 to 2018 he received “Highly Cited Researcher” status that placed him in the top 1% of cited scientists internationally in his field.
He receives funding from competitive research schemes and government sources. He currently leads an NHMRC funded Centre for Research Excellence (2015-2022) called “EMPOWER: Health systems, disadvantage and child well-being.”
He currently serves on several international, national, and local scientific advisory groups. He was an editor of the highly ranked International Journal of Epidemiology for over a decade.
His research interests include health and development, social and health inequality, child maltreatment, pragmatic RCTs and quasi-experiments of early life interventions, large scale linked data systems to enhance evidence-based public health, and producing epidemiological research that is useful in improving policy, practice and service delivery.