Professor Ben Howden is a public health microbiologist, infectious diseases physician and molecular biologist. He is Director of the Microbiological Diagnostic Unit Public Health Laboratory (MDU PHL), Head of the Howden Research Group and is a co-lead of the Global Health cross-cutting discipline at the Doherty Institute. In his roles, Ben is responsible for the provision of public health laboratory services, national and global research activities in pathogen genomics and antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and capacity and capability building programs primarily focussed in the Asia Pacific region.
Ben completed training in medical microbiology and infectious diseases in 2004, and was awarded a PhD from Monash University in 2009. In 2014, Ben was appointed as Director of the MDU PHL and Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. Ben has been the recipient of many research awards including a commendation in the Victorian Premier’s Prize for Medical Research (2010), the American Society for Microbiology ICAAC Young Investigator Award (2011), the Australian Society for Microbiology Frank Fenner Award (2014) the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases Frank Fenner Award (2015) and the NHMRC Top 10 Award (2024). Ben helped establish and is co-director of the Centre for Pathogen Genomics and WHO Collaborating Centre for AMR at the University of Melbourne (Doherty Institute). These Centre’s focus on pathogen genomics and AMR related research and training programs in the Asia Pacific region.
