Dr Robyn Tapp

Dip(ChildStud), BA(PsychPhys), GradDip(HealthStats), PhD

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Dr Robyn Tapp is a NHMRC Sidney Sax Research Fellow with the International Public Health Unit in the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University and is an honorary research associate at the International Centre for Circulatory Health, Imperial College London. Robyn’s research interests focus on the epidemiology of micro and macro vascular complications associated with diabetes mellitus, cardiac health and life course influences on adult disease.

Robyn completed a PhD on the epidemiology of diabetes related complications in the Australian population at Monash University in 2004 – this work was undertaken at the International Diabetes Institute where she assisted in the establishment, and then co-ordinated the sub-study of the Australian diabetes, obesity and lifestyle study (AusDiab). This was the first national study in Australia to estimate the prevalence of diabetes related complications and its public health and societal impact. The study received widespread recognition throughout the international diabetes and obesity community. 

In 2005 Robyn was awarded the prestigious National Health and Medical Research Council Sidney Sax Post Doctoral Fellowship and as part of this award in 2005 and 2006 undertook post doctoral training at the International Centre for Circulatory Health, Imperial College London and INSERM France. During this time she established a project that for the first time will provide valuable information on the impact of low birth weight and accelerated postnatal growth on the retinal microvasculature in children. Robyn has now returned to Melbourne and is developing a study to look at the vascular and cardiac health of children and youth with type 2 diabetes and obesity in Australia.