Dr Simon Firestone is an Associate Professor in Veterinary Epidemiology and Public Health in the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Melbourne. He coordinates the Master of Veterinary Public Health program and also teaches epidemiology into the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, One Health breadth subjects and the Animal Disease Biotechnology stream of the Science degree. His research focuses on modelling infectious disease outbreaks, Bayesian diagnostic test validation, zoonoses surveillance, outbreak investigation and control, with projects on COVID-19, Q fever, foot-and-mouth disease, African swine fever, Mycoplasma bovis in New Zealand and Australia, foodborne disease, influenzas and arboviruses.