A fellowship that’s changing global health

Growing up an eye-witness to the devastating impact of disease has propelled Meru Sheel to transform public health approaches and inspire the next generation of health leaders. 

Growing up in Delhi, India, A/Prof Meru Sheel knew she was destined for medicine and health. An applied epidemiologist, vaccinologist and global health researcher, she says, “I was raised in a family where hard work and education were core values, so attending university was a given.”

 

But it wasn’t until Meru was 15 years old that her passion for vaccine development and disease prevention took shape. Meru witnessed first-hand the challenges of a family friend whose daughter had polio and a close friend who died of tuberculosis. Both left their mark. These tragedies, coupled with a national polio eradication campaign in India in the 1990s, set Meru on a path to become what she often refers to as “a disease detective”.

 

In 2005, she made the leap to Brisbane, obtaining a PhD in life sciences from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research and the Queensland University of Technology, working on new vaccines for bacterial pathogens (group A streptococcus). The bacterial infection is linked to rheumatic heart disease, something disproportionately affecting First Nations people in Australia and New Zealand and low-income countries.

 

After completing her post-doctoral training in parasite immunology with a focus on malaria and visceral leishmaniasis and working in public health in Western Australia, Meru earned an MPhil in Applied Epidemiology in 2017. But while her accolades were piling up, her passion was waning. “I felt my scope as a researcher was narrowing and I wanted to do something impactful,” she says.

 

A friend recommended Meru apply for the Westpac Research Fellowship and while she calls the selection process “rigorous” she also credits this with boosting her confidence. “It centred around me as a leader and as a human, not just a researcher who can put a paper together.” The result, she believes, opens the door for greater diversity. “It gives greater opportunities to people who’ve been in different places and spaces, who bring fresh perspectives.”

 

Meru had accepted a job in 2018 in Bangkok when she found out her application for the Westpac Research Fellowship was successful. “It changed my career trajectory quite significantly,” says Meru of the fellowship, which began in 2019 – the year the Covid pandemic began – and awarded her over $370,000 across three years. “I was well placed for the pandemic response,” she explains. “When I got my fellowship, everyone was like, ‘Who cares about emergencies?’ And then, of course, the pandemic happened nine months later so I had the funding and the support to research the emergency response in Australia and the region.”

 

Meru is now part of the Westpac Scholars Impact Network, a group of Research Fellows who are working together to reframe the value of universities and research, and redefine leadership in the field. “I’ve had a lot of great mentors in my career, but this cohort of Research Fellows is a tribe of like-minded people.”

 

The fellowship has also enabled her to identify diverse talent, including another Westpac Scholar from the Asian Exchange scholarship stream, Adeline Tinessia. “She’s Indonesian by heritage, and we needed somebody who could read and write in Bahasa Indonesian. I put her name forward, which enabled her to get hired as a research assistant,” Meru says. Fast-forward three years and now Meru is one of Adeline’s PhD supervisors. “If the saying, ‘You can’t be what you can’t see’ is true, then perhaps I’m offering an alternative,” she says. “Those researchers and academics from diverse backgrounds can see somebody they want to be.