Australia’s Longest Running Cohort Study Appoints New Director
Professor Romola Bucks To Lead The Raine Study Into Its 4th Decade
17 November 2020 – Perth, Western Australia: The Board of the Raine Study is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Romola Bucks as its new Director. Established in 1989, the Raine Study is one of the largest ongoing studies of the same group of individuals to be carried out anywhere in the world, from before they were born, through early adulthood and beyond.
Romola joins the Raine Study to fill the vacancy created by Professor Peter Eastwood’s appointment as Director of the Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute in South Australia. She officially started at the Raine Study on 2 November. One of her first tasks will be to finalise the recruitment of a new Scientific Director.
Professor Bucks said: “I’m excited to join the Raine Study team, which was the first of its kind to investigate the impact of more frequent ultrasound on maternal and infant health. Thirty years later, discoveries from the Raine Study have had significant impact on health policy, practice, and education across the globe.
“My goal is to maintain the reputation of the Raine Study and ensure that it can continue to provide the best evidence of early life predictors of health and wellbeing into middle and older age – firstly, by conserving and maximising use of the more than 30,000 pieces of data we have already collected; and secondly, by ensuring we are able to collect new data from our cohort and their families as they enter their fourth decade.”
Jan Stewart, Chair of the Board of the Raine Study, said of Professor Bucks’ appointment, “The Raine Study is a uniquely valuable resource, not only in Western Australia but in Australia and internationally. Romola’s passion for science as well as her record of distinction as an academic and clinical psychologist and commitment to mentoring young scientists makes her the ideal person to lead the Raine Study into its next decade of life-changing discoveries.”
Currently a professor in the School of Psychological Science at the University of Western Australia and formerly Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Science and Head of the School of Psychological Science at UWA, Romola brings a distinguished academic and scientific background to the Raine Study. She sits on the Board of Directors of the Australian Psychology Accreditation Council, and in 2018 was made a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science for her contribution to the field.
About the Raine Study
The Raine Study is one of the largest prospective cohorts of pregnancy, childhood, adolescence, and now early adulthood to be carried out anywhere in the world. The Raine Study’s purpose is to improve human health and well-being through the ongoing study of a group of young Western Australians since before they were born.
A total of 2,900 pregnant women entered the study between 1989 and 1991, and 2,868 live births were recruited into the cohort. These children born into the study, their parents, their grandparents and now their own children are part of one of the world’s most successful multi-generational pregnancy cohort studies.
The Raine Study is a joint venture between The University of Western Australia, Curtin University, Telethon Kids Institute, Women and Infants Research Foundation, Edith Cowan University, Murdoch University and The University of Notre Dame Australia. Flinders University in South Australia and Newcastle University in New South Wales are Institutional Partners. The study receives additional funding support from the Raine Medical Research Foundation and National Health and Medical Research Council.
Media Contact: Kate Rowlands, Communications Manager, The Raine Study
Email – kate.rowlands@uwa.edu.au, 0437 005 173