Get to know your College: Nathan Harrison

Nathan is an early-career health behavioural scientist, and public health and implementation science student. He started PhD studies with the College in June 2022, focused on lung cancer screening, smoking, and stigma. Learn more about his career journey, his research, and his advice to his younger self…

What is your role and what does your work focus on? 

I’m six months into my public health and implementation science PhD, which is focused on lung cancer screening, smoking, and stigma. I also work as a Senior Research Officer at the National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction (NCETA). NCETA is a partnership between Flinders University and the Commonwealth Department of Health, and one of the key national research centres in the alcohol and other drugs field, with a key focus on workforce development. I currently contribute to NCETA’s prevention and early intervention research, especially in public health messaging to reduce alcohol supply.

Nathan (pictured on the right) with some of the NCETA team at the 2022 Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol & other Drugs (APSAD) conference in Darwin.

Where did you work before joining CMPH? 

I first started in the former faculty when I was 21 and fresh out of an Honours year in psychology – so I’d been working in retail and hospitality while I was at Uni, alongside some odd jobs playing music here and there. Before coming back again and taking up my current role though, I’d been working as a behavioural scientist in the Health Policy Centre at SAHMRI, and teaching in psychology and social science programs at Swinburne Uni Online.

What journey brought you to this point in your career? 

More than anything else, jumping at opportunities to get to work with awesome people (like my current supervisors, Prof Billie Bonevski and Prof Jacquie Bowden). Many of those who have shaped my thinking have also emphasised the importance of good evidence, which certainly led me into doing research work in the first place and then PhD enrolment more recently.

What is something you love most about your work? 

Seeing how policy and practice can be informed, and the harms of substance use ultimately reduced, is a big motivation. I also feel very lucky to have benefited from the expertise we have here in the Flinders community, through everything from formal mentoring to conversations in the kitchen.

It is such a privilege to be constantly learning, even when I’m not formally ‘studying’. The kindness, commitment, and ‘big picture’ thinking from colleagues across different backgrounds means that I leave campus feeling totally inspired. Plus the group fitness classes at the gym and the sunsets from the Health Science Building are other real highlights too.

If you could tell your younger self one thing, what would it be? 

That, yes, sleep is really important. (I’m slowly getting better at taking this advice).

(L-R) Jamil Locker, Professor Billie Bonevski, and Nathan at the 2022 CMPH Emerging Leaders Showcase

If you had a superpower what would it be?

To teleport! Mainly to shorten the distance between friends and family overseas, but also because I love a short commute.

How do you like to relax or spend your spare time?

With music of all sorts, and by playing drums, doing yoga, and running. Food is also a huge passion – there are no better times than those spent flicking through cookbooks, cooking with my partner (often Italian food, his specialty), and sharing meals with family and friends.

Who is the most famous person you are related to?

My great-grandfather Hugh wrote a book about his life after migrating to Australia, and I grew up thinking he was really famous. Similarly, when I was growing up my Dad did a couple of local country radio interviews that really stick in my mind and my Uncle used to send VHS tapes back from Canada when he was working on TV. They all have really cool stories and I wish more people could hear them! Until then, I hope I can pass a few more of them on too.

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