Dr Lucia Romani is a global health epidemiologist and Group Leader of the Global Health Trial Group at the Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney. She has over 15 years’ experience leading and collaborating on implementation research focused on infectious diseases in low and middle-income countries. Lucia has established a strong national and international profile in neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), pioneering community-based interventions and their integration into broader NTD programs in the Pacific region. Lucia has extensive epidemiologic research experience in a diverse range of areas, including large-scale clinical trials and observational studies, mass drug administration for NTDs and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in resource-poor settings.

Lucia has been awarded $29.5 million in competitive research grants as leading or co-investigator and is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Investigator grant (EL2).  Lucia has lead several clinical trials supported by competitive funding schemes, including NHMRC,  the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) to control endemic NTDs in the Pacific Islands. In 2019 she was part of the team awarded $10 million in philanthropic funding from the Macquarie Group to lead a 5-year global program to control scabies in Fiji and Solomon Islands. Lucia was part of the team awarded $1.5 million (in 2021) and $8 Million (in 2025) by NHMRC to control NTDs in the Pacific region. In 2022 she obtained $2.2 million as CIA to reduce STI prevalence and adverse maternal and antenatal outcomes in Fiji.

Lucia’s research findings have been consistently published in highly regarded international journals: The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, The Lancet Infectious Diseases and The Lancet Global Health. Lucia’s leadership and research excellence have been recognised through multiple academic awards, including the 2023 L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science Fellowship, the 2023 UNSW Global Health Impact Award, 2019 Research Australia Discovery Award, and the 2017 prestigious Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Infectious Diseases Research.