Biography

Celeste is a virologist who completed her PhD in the Enteric Diseases Group at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and Department of Microbiology at La Trobe University in 2015. Her project focussed on the impact of rotavirus vaccine introduction on the diversity and evolution of rotavirus strains in Australia. She then completed a two-year postdoctoral position at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore, first in the Laboratories of Pathogen Discovery and Emerging Zoonotic Infections and then in the Laboratory of Infectious Disease Dynamics. Celeste was awarded an NHMRC Peter Doherty Biomedical Fellowship and joined the Laboratory of Virus Evolution in the Department of Microbiology at Monash University in late 2016. In 2019 Celeste re-joined the Enteric Diseases Group at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute as a Senior Research Fellow.

Celeste’s research explores the epidemiology and evolution of viruses causing disease in humans and animal populations. She has a particular interest in viruses causing significant burdens of disease in the paediatric population such as rotavirus, enterovirus, astrovirus and influenza. Celeste has extensive experience in virus sequencing and phylogenetic analysis and has lectured undergraduate microbiology units at La Trobe University and Monash University. Celeste is passionate about science communication and engaging high school students in STEM, participating in a number of outreach events including Pint of Science and the BrainSTEM Innovation Challenge. 

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