Caroline Miller

Prof Caroline Miller is the Director of the Population Health Research Group at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, located in Adelaide, Australia.

She is also an NHMRC Career Development Fellow and Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellow at the University of Adelaide.

The group she leads at SAHMRI undertakes programs of research in public health, specialising in tobacco control, obesity prevention and alcohol. The group delivers evidence to inform public health policy and population-based public health and health promotion interventions to reduce the preventable burden of non-communicable disease.

Prof Miller is most known for her work in tobacco control, in which she has specialised for 20 years. She was one of a select group of research scientists advising the Australian Government on the body of research to ascertain the optimal design for the packaging which then became the regulations for the Act. She has led elements and contributed to the larger evaluation of the law. Her doctoral research into Graphic Health Warnings on tobacco resulted in her being awarded a doctoral research medal in 2011. The findings have received international recognition and were applied in formulating a new series of health warnings for Australia.

Prof Miller has also published research on Quitlines, televised Quit campaigns, smoking in pregnancy and tobacco cessation in mental illness. In her capacity as General Manager, Cancer Control at Cancer Council SA, her portfolio included directing South Australia’s Quit program for many years. She has extensive experience advising Australian state and federal governments on evidence for tobacco control policy and programs, and a range of other areas of cancer control. She is the principal external advisor to the South Australian Government on tobacco control and has held a (competitively tendered) commissioned Tobacco Control Research and Evaluation unit for 20 years.

She is highly experienced in other areas of health promotion and public health, including obesity prevention and population-wide screening for cancers (breast, cervix and bowel). She advises the South Australian Government on obesity prevention initiatives. She is advancing a program of research applying a public health framework to the issue of obesity prevention.

The team Prof Miller leads also undertake research in Prostate cancer health outcomes, cancer survivorship and also administers two cancer registries (NT Population Registry and SA Cancer Clinical Registry).

Prof Miller is also Executive Officer at SAHMRI, leading work including SAHMRI’s Consumer Engagement strategy, measuring Research Impact and managing government relations regarding data access.

Highlights of her career include:

• Publication of 71 peer-reviewed papers, 1285 citations (Google Scholar) and 110 conference presentations
• Lead Investigator on $9m of competitive funding, with $16m awarded over all research projects
• Awarded a NHMRC Career Development Fellowship in 2017
• Awarded 2 NHMRC Grants to conduct research on sugar sweetened beverages
• Awarded Beat Cancer Project (Cancer Council SA) Principal Research Fellowship
• Membership of Australian Expert Committee on Tobacco Plain Packaging
• Past chair of Cancer Council Australia and National Heart Foundation Tobacco Issues Committee, at time of passing of Australian Plain Packaging legislation – a world first tobacco control policy initiative
• Membership of the Research Advisory Committee of the Australian National Breast Cancer Foundation, oversighting its Category 1 funding program
• Past President of the Public Health Association (SA Branch), Convenor of PHAA National Conference and member of PHAA national executive
• Awarding of Doctoral Research Medal in 2012 for PhD in Medicine (Public Health) for thesis examining the effectiveness of Australia’s graphic on packet health warnings.

Prof Miller currently supervises 3 PhD students.