Dr Belaynew Wasie Taye is a medical epidemiologist and Senior Research Officer at the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases, The Kids Research Institute Australia, based at Perth Children’s Hospital. With a PhD in Epidemiology from The University of Queensland and years of clinical care, research, and higher education teaching experiences across Ethiopia and Australia, he has contributed significantly to global infectious disease research, with a strong emphasis on Group A Streptococcus, viral hepatitis, and respiratory viral infections. Dr Taye has authored over 60 peer-reviewed publications, with over 3,500 citations, and has led and supported major research projects across diverse settings, including in culturally and linguistically diverse communities.

Dr Taye currently investigates the global burden of group A streptococcal diseases using health data from several LMICs and HICs. He contributes to the Streptococcus A Vaccine Global Consortium (SAVAC), a multi-country collaboration funded by the Leducq Foundation and Open Philanthropy, focusing on the global burden of Strep A diseases. In Western Australia, he investigates respiratory virus hospitalizations using large-scale linked health data to estimate the true burden of respiratory syncytial virus and other respiratory viral infections in children. His research also extends to modelling the impact of interventions to eliminate hepatitis B and C in remote and migrant communities.

At the Kids Research Institute Australia, Dr Taye is involved in investigating paediatric infectious diseases using birth cohort data from WA Health, and multi-country routine health data from different collaborating countries. He serves as a peer reviewer for high-impact journals, such as The Lancet eClinicalMedicine, Scientific Reports and Trials, and presented his research at global conferences, including the World Congress of Epidemiology and the International Liver Cancer Association. He holds an adjunct academic appointment at the University of Western Australia and Curtin University, and previously served in senior academic and research leadership roles at Bahir Dar and Gondar Universities in Ethiopia.

Dr Taye’s teaching spans quantitative research methods, epidemiology, disease control, and evidence synthesis. He has taught and supervised public health postgraduate students in Ethiopia and Australia, and served as an external examiner at several universities. His research interests include infectious disease surveillance, clinical trials, burden of disease, health service equity, evaluation of interventions, and implementation science. He is particularly focused on advancing prevention and care models for underserved populations and translating research into policy and practice through collaborations across disciplines and borders.