[Music plays and an image appears of the Frank Fenner Prize Life Scientist of the Year Science medallion in the centre screen, and text appears beneath: Dr David Khoury, PHD]
[Images move through to show Dr David Khoury writing formulas on a glass writing board, and the camera zooms in on his marker writing]
Dr David Khoury: Maths and stats provide methods and ways of thinking that enable you to look at what might at first seem like different things and to bring them together.
[Images move through to show David talking to the camera, and then views of David writing on a glass board]
Once they’re on the same scale you can start to see the pattern. That is the power of maths and that’s what I have enjoyed about bringing maths and stats to my work.
[Image changes to show David talking to the camera, and the medallion and text appears: Dr David Khoury]
My name is David Khoury. I am an infectious disease researcher.
[Image changes to show a profile view of David talking to the camera, and then the image changes to show David walking towards the camera in front of the Kirby Institute]
I work at the Kirby Institute at UNSW Sydney.
[Image changes to show David talking to the camera, and then the image changes to show David talking with his colleagues]
My work doesn’t happen without collaboration.
[Images move through to show the various people David is talking with, David talking to the camera, and then a side view of David walking outside the Kirby Institute]
I need to work with the laboratory scientists, the immunologists, the virologists and then the clinicians and the public health decision makers.
[Images move through to show a facing view of David walking, David talking to the camera, David talking with his colleagues, and the colleagues listening]
I can bring a quantitative lens, bringing together of very different data sets from different fields and disciplines, translate it, interpret it and integrating it to get sort of one clear, holistic picture for a clinical decision or a public health decision.
[Image changes to show David talking to the camera]
For example, malaria is a huge problem globally.
[Image changes to show to show test tubes being put into a tray]
There has always been drug resistance that makes them less effective.
[Images move through to show David and researchers looking at tablets in a laboratory, and David and the researcher looking down]
We developed this new approach that has been really snapped up by funding agencies and drug developers globally to test their anti-malarials with this.
[Image changes to show a researcher conducting a trial]
M-pox is an awful infectious disease.
[Image changes to show David talking to the camera]
Although we knew the vaccines work to protect people we didn’t know how long that would last.
[Image changes to show to show a close profile and then medium facing view of David seated and talking to the camera]
There was real questions being asked around, do we have enough vaccines for all those who need them.
[Images move through to show a researcher filling test tubes in a lab, and then a close view of the researcher’s face as she looks down]
Our model allowed those decisions to be made without the need for a very long, slow trial.
[Images move through to show rear and facing views of David working on his computer, and then a close view of a graph on the computer screen]
During COVID my work again was really about showing things that we can measure in your blood after you get vaccine especially.
[Image changes to show David talking to the camera]
Those are good measures of how well protected you are from COVID.
[Images move through to show a rear and then facing view of David and a colleague working and talking together, and then a close view of David’s hands typing on a keyboard]
The importance of this type of work is really to get vaccines and treatments to the people who need them most more quickly. That is where my passion is.
[Images move through to show a side view of David working on the computer, and then a side facing view of David talking to the camera]
To receive the Frank Fenner Prize for Life Scientist of the Year is an absolute honour and privilege.
[Images move through to show views of David writing formulas on a glass board]
I think it recognises work that we’ve done and it’s having a real impact on people’s lives and that’s what we want.
[Image changes to show David seated and talking to the camera, and then the image changes to show David smiling at the camera]
I think what we’re showing is some of the power of maths and stats that maybe hasn’t been seen before to answer more questions and to do more with the data than people realised or thought was possible.
[Music plays and the changes to show the Frank Fenner Prize Life Scientist of the Year Science medallion, and the Australian Government Coat of Arms on the bottom right, and text appears: 2025 Frank Fenner Prize Life Scientist of the Year]
