Emeritus Professor Robert Cumming AO

MBBS UNSW; MPH PhD University of Sydney; FAFPHM, Royal Australian College of Physicians, Australia; AO

Primary affiliation: Emeritus Professor of Epidemiology and Geriatric Medicine, The University of Sydney; Honorary Professor, CEPAR, UNSW Sydney; Professorial Fellow, Ageing Asia Research Hub, UNSW Sydney

Robert Cumming AO is Emeritus Professor of Epidemiology and Geriatric Medicine at the University of Sydney, Honorary Professor at CEPAR, UNSW Sydney and Professorial Fellow in CEPAR's Ageing Asia Research Hub. He has been a Chief Investigator with CEPAR from 2011 to 2020 and led CEPAR's research stream Sustainable Wellbeing in Later Life.

Bob trained in medicine at the University of New South Wales before going on to study epidemiology in Sydney and New York. He has worked at the University of Sydney since 1990 and has shared his time between the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney and the Centre for Education and Research on Ageing (CERA) at Concord Hospital. 

Bob has had an outstanding career conducting epidemiological research into ageing and ageing-related diseases. He has an international reputation for his research on osteoporosis, falls and fractures. His research on falls prevention in older people has had major impact on policy and practice in this important field. Much of his research brings together biological, psychosocial and medical aspects of ageing. In recent years he has extended his work to the study of ageing and health in developing countries in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

He is a member of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s National Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Conditions Monitoring Advisory Group and serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Epidemiology. He is a Life Member of the Australasian Epidemiological Association. He was named a 2016 Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics, one of just 115 Australian researchers across all academic disciplines to receive this award.

Keywords: Epidemiology; Falls; Geriatric Medicine