The Univeristy of Melbourne The Royal Melbourne Hopspital

A joint venture between The University of Melbourne and The Royal Melbourne Hospital

Professor Karena Waller

Professor Karena Waller

(03) 8344 0045 | klwaller@unimelb.edu.au

Position:
Deputy Program Director, Bachelor of Biomedicine
Theme(s):
Antimicrobial Resistance, Bacterial and Parasitic Infections
Discipline(s):
Education & Professional Development
Unit(s):
The University of Melbourne, Department of Microbiology and Immunology (DMI)

Karena Waller is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. Karena joined the Department’s academic teaching staff in 2010 after completing 15 years in local and international malaria research. Today, Karena contributes significantly to the teaching and learning of microbiology and immunology to second and third year Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Biomedicine students. In addition to her role as lecturer and subject coordinator, Karena is also the Academic Programs Coordinator, Majors Coordinator and the Exchange/Global Mobility Coordinator for the Department. External to the Department, Karena sits on numerous School, Faculty, Institute and University Committees, primarily focusing on teaching and learning, student experience and engagement, and academic governance and program management.

  • Key Achievements
    • Karena completed a Bachelor of Science with Honours (Monash University, 1994) before completing a Doctor of Philosophy (Monash University, 2001) investigating the protein interactions in malaria-infected red blood cells. After completing five years of post-doctoral research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, USA, Karena was awarded a prestigious NHMRC Howard Florey Fellowship in 2005 to return to Australia to establish an independent malaria research program. Karena has published numerous biomedical andeducational research and Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) articles in international, peer-reviewed journals. Karena completed the Graduate Certificate in University Teaching (University of Melbourne, 2011) and has been a member of the University’s Academic Programs Committee (APC) and Teaching and Learning Quality Assurance Committee (TALQAC) since 2017. Karena’s excellence and innovation in teaching and learning has been rewarded with numerous prizes, from both the University and the Australian Society for Microbiology.

Full University of Melbourne profile