Gizachew Tessema

Gizachew Tessema

School of Public Health

Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD (as Co-Supervisor) - email supervisor to discuss availability.


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Dr Gizachew Tessema is an Associate Professor at Curtin University and Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the University of Adelaide. Dr Tessema is an emerging leader in perinatal and reproductive epidemiology and health services research with research interest that employed advanced statistical analyses, mixed methods research (MMR), and qualitative design. He obtained his PhD in Public Health (2018; Dean’s Commendation for Doctoral Thesis Excellence) from the University of Adelaide. Following his Gro Harlem Brundtland Visiting Fellowship from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) in 2020, he has been located in Norway between Jan and Apr 2020 and worked as a visiting scientist at the Centre for Fertility and Health.

He has received several honours and awards, of which notable awards include: the WA Young Tall Poppy Award (2022), STEM Early Career Researcher of the Year Award at Curtin (2022), Early- and Mid-Career Researcher (EMCR) of the Year Award from the enAble Institute at Curtin, Commendation in Postgraduate Research Supervision from Curtin (2022), Early Career Researcher of the Year Award for the Faculty of Health Sciences at Curtin (2022). Gizachew is a NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow (Level 1) and also received  the Charter Hall Research Collaboration Award from the Raine Medical Foundation (2020) to expand his international collaboration. 

Dr Tessema's current research work is focusing on a developing a risk prediction model to prevent avoidable adverse perinatal outcomes in Australia. This work expands from his project that aimed to investigate the effect of interpregnancy intervals on adverse perinatal outcomes in high-income countries spanning Australia, Norway, Finland, and United States (California) involving birth registries totalling over 11 million births of more than three decades. He published >120 high quality journal articles including a first or last authored papers in Lancet Global Health, PLoS Medicine, eClinicalMedicine (Lancet's journal), BMJ Global Health, and BJOG, and several co-authored papers in the Lancet, Lancet HIV, JAMA Oncology. 

Dr Tessema is an academic and educator, and teaching and coordinating units at Curtin including Epidemiology and Evidence Unit - a core postgraduate unit in the Curtin School of Population Health, Curtin University.

  • Awards and Achievements

    Date Type Title Institution Name Country Amount
    2022 Achievement WA Young Tall Poppy Awards Australian Institute of Policy and Science Australia -
    2022 Award Early Career Researcher of the Year Award Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University Australia -
    2022 Award Commendation in Research Supervision Curtin University Australia -
    2022 Award STEM Early Career Researcher Award Curtin University Australia -
    2022 Research Award Raine Research Prize Raine Medical Research Foundation Australia -
    2022 Award Early- and Mid-Career Researcher (EMCR) Award enAble Institute, Curtin University Australia -
    2020 Fellowship The Gro Harlem Brundtland Visiting Scholarship Norwegian Institute of Public Health Norway -
    2019 Research Award Charter Hall Research Collaboration Award Raine Medical Research Foundation Australia -
    2018 Award Dean's Commendation for Doctoral Thesis Excellence University of Adelaide Australia -
    2017 Fellowship DR Stranks Travelling Fellowship 2016 University of Adelaide Australia -
    2017 Scholarship Research Abroad Scholarship 2016 - - -
    2015 Scholarship Adelaide Scholarship International University of Adelaide Australia -
  • Language Competencies

    Language Competency
    Amharic Can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review
    English Can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review
  • Education

    Date Institution name Country Title
    2015 - 2018 The University of Adelaide Australia PhD in Public and Community Health
    2011 - 2012 University of Gondar Ethiopia MPH (Reproductive and Child Health Speciality)
    2005 - 2009 Hawassa University Ethiopia BSc (Public Health)
  • Research Interests

  • 2023 - BrightSpark Research Prize, Raine Medical Research Foundation, WA
  • 2022 Early- and Mid-Career Reaearcher (EMCR) Award, enAble Institute, Curtin University
  • 2022 Raine Research Prize, Raine Medical Research Foundation, WA
  • 2022STEM Early Career Researcher Award, Curtin University
  • 2022 Commendation in Research Supervision, Excellence in Teaching Awards, Curtin University
  • 2022Early Career Researcher of the Year Award for Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University
  • 2022WA Young Tall Poppy AwardsAustralian Institute of Policy and Science
  • 2021 - Finalist for Business, Society & Community ECR the Year AwardCurtin University
  • 2020 Health and Medical Research Council Emerging Leadership Fellowship, Australia 
  • 2020 - Charter Hall Research Collaboration Award, Raine Medical Research Foundation, WA
  • 2019 - The Gro Harlem Brundtland Visiting ScholarshipNorwegian Institute of Public Health
  • 2017 - DR Strank Travelling Fellowship,  University of Adelaide
  • 2016 - Research Abroad ScholarshipUniversity of Adelaide
  • 2015 - PhD Scholarship, Adelaide Scholarship International from the University of Adelaide, SA
  • 2014 - Demograhic and Health Survey (DHS) Fellowship - ICF International and DHS Program, US

2023 2024 - Epidemiology and Evidence (Curtin)

2023 2024 - Health Planning and Evaluation (Curtin)

2022 - Reproductive & Perinatal Epidemiology (PHEB 622) at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health,  USA (Invited Guest Lecture)

2020-2022 - Guest Lecturer for International Health Unit 

2016 - Conducted tutorials and marked assignments for Public Health 1A for Public Health students

2016 - Conducted tutorials on International Health for Public Health and Medical students


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