Following completing the Bachelor of Science Advanced with Honours at Monash University, I began a PhD at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity. My research aims to describe the impact of influenza and spread of the virus across northern Australia. My project examines notifications of influenza infection along with data from phylogenetic analyses of linked patient samples. A second arm of my PhD project involves undertaking an assessment of the current effectiveness of the influenza vaccination program for Indigenous Australians in the Northern Territory. I am also conducting studies comparing the protection offered by vaccination against influenza to the protection offered by natural infection at a community level and assessing the morbidity and mortality caused by influenza on the Indigenous population on a national level.