Associate Professor Darren Wraith

  • Associate Professor Darren Wraith

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Co-leader, Health & Biological Systems Domain; Associate Professor School of Public Health & Social Work

PhD (Queensland University of Technology)

Dr Darren Wraith is an Associate Professor of Biostatistics in the School of Public Health and Social Work, Faculty of Health, Queensland Institute of Technology. Dr. Wraith has a Bachelor of Mathematics (2003) from the University of Newcastle, Australia and a PhD in Statistics (2008) from Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Australia. He also has a Bachelor of Commerce (Economics) and P.Grad Diploma in Health Economics & Evaluation from Monash University (1996) and was a Research Fellow in Health Economics at the Centre for Health Program Evaluation, Monash University (1997-1998).

Dr Wraith’s work enables the evaluation of human behaviours, public health outcomes and environmental impacts on health.

Before his appointment at QUT, Dr Wraith worked internationally, spending five years in France as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Université Paris-Dauphine, Paris and as a Research Engineer at INRIA, Grenoble.

Dr Wraith has published in a variety of international journals across a range of academic topics such as problem gambling and the effects of environmental pollutants.

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

  • Bayesian statistics
  • mixture models (clustering/classification)
  • environmental exposures and outcomes
  • assessment of interaction between risk factors
  • spatial and temporal modelling
  • computationally efficient methods for parameter estimation
  • bioinformatics
  • high dimensional analysis
  • assessment of risk factors for problem gambling

Additional information

Experience

Professional development

Effective University Teaching, Graduate Certificate in University Teaching, Centre for the Study of Higher Education, University of Melbourne.

Senior Fellow, Higher Education Academy

Grants & Awards

Since returning to Australia in 2013, Dr. Wraith has been a Chief Investigator on grants worth around $2.5 million dollars. This includes two NHMRC funded grants: Biofocussed Prostate Cancer RadioTherapy (BiRT): A Personalised Approach to Delivering the Right Dose to the Right Place ($753,565); and Cancer Risks from Low-Dose Ionising Radiation following Diagnostic Medical Procedures ($721,860).

Other grants and work with industry/government include:

- Queens Wharf Brisbane (QWB) Safety Study (2018/19), Department of Industry, Development and Tourism, Queensland Government (Co-chief researcher with Prof. John Scott and Dr. Michael Hathaway, School of Justice, QUT)

- QWB Gambling Impact Study (2017/18), Department of State Development, Queensland Government (Chief researcher)

- Medical Science Writer, Specialist Medical Reviews, Department of Veterans Affairs (2018)

- Development of a risk prediction tool for cardiovascular disease (2018), Merridown Family Surgery, Gold Coast, Australia.

- Theatre Skills for the Classroom (2014). University of Melbourne Teaching & Learning Initiatives Grant (Chief Investigator)

- Bayesian mixture modelling for characterising environmental exposures and outcomes (2008). PhD thesis, Queensland University of Technology (Received Dean’s Award for Academic Excellence).

Research Translation and Impact

Research examining the risk of lung cancer and the interaction between exposure to smoking and asbestos (Wraith et al (2007); Wraith et al (2008)) has been highly cited and led to a better understanding of the risks of asbestos exposure in recent work by the IARC programme evaluating the carcinogenicity of asbestos (2011).

Research Projects

Title
Statistical Methods for Quantifying Variation in Spatiotemporal Areal Data
Primary fund type
CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
Project ID
LP200100468
Start year
2021
Keywords
Title
Biofocussed Prostate Cancer RadioTherapy (BiRT): A Personalised Approach to Delivering the Right Dose to the Right Place
Primary fund type
CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
Project ID
1126955
Start year
2017
Keywords
Radiotherapy; Prostate cancer; Image processing; Mathematical modelling; Brachytherapy
Title
Cancer Risks from Low-Dose Ionising Radiation following Diagnostic Medical Procedures
Primary fund type
CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
Project ID
1084197
Start year
2015
Keywords
Ionising Radiation; Cancer; Paediatric; Nuclear Medicine; Radiology

Current Supervisions

  • Gambling and mental health: uncovering the underlying temporal mechanisms
    PhD, Principal Supervisor
    Other supervisors: Professor Michelle Gatton
  • Evaluating the impact of casino developments and expansions: gambling related harm and harm minimisation utilisation in vulnerable groups
    PhD, Principal Supervisor
    Other supervisors: Dr Christina Malatzky
  • Enhanced infectious disease modelling by integrating multiple sources of data under uncertainty
    PhD, Principal Supervisor
    Other supervisors: Dr Susanna Cramb
  • Pregnancy during adolescence: Assessing the impact on nutritional status and understanding social and cultural influences in Nepal
    PhD, Principal Supervisor
    Other supervisors: Dr Margo Sendall, Dr Smita Nambiar-Mann
  • Determinants and Distribution of coexisting forms of Malnutrition and its effect on paediatric illnesses in Pakistan
    PhD, Principal Supervisor
    Other supervisors: Dr Smita Nambiar-Mann, Associate Professor Yvette Miller
  • Impact of grass pollen exposures on public health: an investigation of pollen seasons, health indicators and sustainability
    PhD, Associate Supervisor
    Other supervisors: Professor Janet Davies
  • Patient Safety Culture in Saudi Hospitals: A comparative mixed methods study of clinicians' perceptions and organisational practices in two hospitals in the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah
    PhD, Associate Supervisor
    Other supervisors: Dr Sam Toloo Sheikhzadeh Yazd, Ms Paula Bowman

  • PhD, Associate Supervisor
    Other supervisors: Professor Richi Nayak

  • PhD, Associate Supervisor
    Other supervisors: Professor Janet Davies

Completed Supervisions (Doctorate)