WAMHS Researchers

Professor Lyle Palmer (Scientific Director)

Professor Palmer is an internationally renowned geneticist and epidemiologist who is an expert in the genetics of complex respiratory diseases. He is the Foundation Chair in Genetic Epidemiology at The University of Western Australia, where he is also a Professor in the Schools of Medicine & Pharmacology and Population Health. He is the founder of the Laboratory for Genetic Epidemiology in the Western Australian Institute for Medical Research. Before returning to Western Australia in mid-2003, he was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Director of Statistical Genomics at the Channing Laboratory, Boston.

Sarah Ward (Study Coordinator/PhD Candidate)

Sarah graduated from The University of Western Australia with a combined Bachelor of Commerce / Bachelor of Science (Hons), with majors in Marketing, Management, Genetics and Anatomy and Human Biology and a First Class Honours in Anatomy and Human Biology. After completing her degree, Sarah worked as a Research Consultant for a market research company, coordinating and assisting on commercial research projects. Sarah is currently the Study Coordinator for the WAMHS and is responsible for the day to day running of the study, patient recruitment, data collection, liaising with all study personnel and implementation of all relevant processes and protocols. She is also completing a PhD part-time and will be using data collected by the WAMHS to investigate the genetic and environmental factors involved in melanoma and scarring.

Gemma Cadby (PhD Candidate)

Gemma graduated from The University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Science (Hons) majoring in Applied Statistics. She is currently completing a PhD working with the Scott Kirkbride Melanoma Centre and the Laboratory for Genetic Epidemiology, Western Australian Institute for Medical Research. Gemma is assisting in establishing the Western Australian Melanoma Health Study and will be using the health information gathered from this study to investigate the genetic and environmental factors contributing to melanoma. Her research also involves statistical methodology, in particular meta-analysis and the use of instrumental variables.

Ms Lezette East (Research Assistant)

Lee graduated from The University of the West of England in 1993 with a BA(Hons) in European Languages and Information Systems. She then went into Sales & Finance before joining IBM UK in 1995 as a Technical Writer. Lee graduated with a Master of Science in Information Engineering and, following this, transferred to IBM Italy for a couple of years before returning to the UK to take up a Software Testing role. During this role, she gained her Certificate of Software Engineering from ISEB (Information Systems Engineering Board) and continued in Software Engineering throughout most of her career thus far. She again took up work with IBM in Australia before moving into the Health sector with Logic Seminars promoting Emotional Fitness and the WA Melanoma Health Study (WAMHS) at Sir Charles Gairdner hospital. Lee will be assisting with data collection and administration for the WAMHS.

Ms Claire Taylor (Research Assistant)

Claire is currently in her fourth year of a Health Science/Commerce degree at The University of Western Australia, majoring in Public Health, Anatomy and Human Biology, Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management. Claire started working on the WAMHS as part of the interviewing team, administering the study questionnaire to participants by telephone interview. She is now also working as a Research Assistant on the study, assisting with data collection and administration.