Dr Yohannes Melaku
Associate Professor in Public Health
College of Medicine and Public Health
Associate Professor Yohannes Adama Melaku is an epidemiologist specialising in nutrition and causal inference. An NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow at Flinders University, he founded and leads the causal inference in Nutrition, Sleep and Physical Activity (ciNSPA) team and is Senior Lead of the Population Health Team in the FHMRI Sleep Health Flagship Program.
Studies of diet and disease often contradict one another, largely because of how dietary data are analysed. A/Prof Melaku's NHMRC-funded program, Increasing the value of evidence from nutritional epidemiology, addresses this. He applies target trial emulation and doubly robust machine learning to the UK Biobank, the China Health and Nutrition Survey and the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study to estimate how changing diet and sleep would alter chronic disease risk. His current focus is ultra-processed food: testing how sound the evidence is and estimating its effects on cardiovascular, respiratory, sleep and cognitive health. He trained in nutritional epidemiology (PhD), statistics and data science (MSc) and lifestyle medicine (MLifeMed).
He has published over 135 peer-reviewed papers (h-index 53), with first- or senior-author work in JAMA Network Open, Sleep Medicine Reviews and Nutrition Reviews. A Global Burden of Disease collaborator since 2013, he co-authored the Lancet and Nature Medicine analyses quantifying diet-related disease worldwide and led the first national estimates for Ethiopia and a 35-country OECD comparison including Australia. Since 2021 he has been an investigator on A$4.4 million in competitive grants, including an NHMRC Investigator Grant as chief investigator. He received the 2026 South Australian Young Tall Poppy Science Award and has been listed among the world's top 2% most-cited scientists (Stanford–Elsevier) since 2020.
His research is cited in 136 policy and guideline documents. His 2026 British Journal of Nutrition paper examines the methodological challenges of translating nutrition evidence into the Australian Dietary Guidelines. He leads the Migrants' Health Study and delivers healthy lifestyle education with African and Ethiopian communities in South Australia.
He has supervised or mentored 12 PhD candidates, eight to completion, and 12 master's students in Australia and Ethiopia. He is an Associate Editor of Nutrition & Metabolism and Frontiers in Nutrition, and gave an invited plenary on causal inference at the 2025 Nutrition Society of Australia conference. He teaches causal inference in Australia, Singapore, Qatar and Ethiopia.
Ph.D, Nutritional Epidemiology
MSc, Statistics and Data Science
MPH, Nutrition
MPH, Public Health
BSc, Public Health
Grants (Australia)
- Eating behaviour, sleep and mental wellbeing: the place and role of ultra-processed foods within healthy dietary patterns (Raine Medical Research Foundation) - 2026 (CIB)
- Childhood ultra-processed food consumption and its long-term health effects: the mediating role of obesity (Healthy Development Adelaide and Prevention SA) - 2026 (CIB)
- Ultra-processed food consumption: population knowledge, beliefs and effect on cognitive health and dementia risk (Curtin University) - 2026 (CIC)
- Identifying nutritional challenges following colorectal cancer surgery: a mixed-methods study (Flinders Foundation) - 2026 (AI)
- Research Investment Fund Scheme (Flinders University) - 2026 (CIA)
- Impact and mechanisms of night-to-night variability in sleep apnoea severity on health and treatment outcomes (NHMRC Ideas Grant) - 2025-2029 (AI)
- Increasing the value of evidence from nutritional epidemiology (NHMRC Investigator Grant, Emerging Leadership) - 2022-2026 (CIA)
- Support for nutritional epidemiological research (Cancer Council Victoria) - 2022-2026 (CIA)
- A pilot study to determine the feasibility of assessing sleep health using a new technology: the Australian Breakthrough Cancer (ABC) Sleep Study (Jack Brockhoff Foundation Early Career Medical Researchers Grant) - 2022-2023 (CIA)
- Improving the management of obstructive sleep apnea and insomnia in primary health care setting (NHMRC Partnership Project) - 2021-2026 (AI)
- Improving migrants' health through diet and sleep: a pilot study and comparison with Australian-born residents using existing community-based cohort studies (FHMRI ECR Kick Start Grant, Flinders University) - 2021-2023 (CIA)
- Community well-being and mental health pre and post COVID-19: insights from the North West Adelaide Health Study and Florey Adelaide Male Ageing Study (The Hospital Research Foundation) - 2020-2021 (CID)
Honors, awards and scholarships
- Best Person of the Year, for contribution to the community (Ethiopian Community Association in South Australia) - 2026
- Young Tall Poppy Science Award (South Australia) - 2026
- World's Top 2% Scientist (Stanford/Elsevier) - 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
- Visiting Fellowship (Qatar University, Qatar) - 2025
- Award for Outstanding Scholar (Ethiopian Community Association in South Australia) - 2023
- Emerging Leadership Fellowship (National Health and Medical Research Council) - 2022-2026
- Vice-Chancellor's Award for Early Career Researchers (Flinders University) - 2022
- Early Career Medical Researchers Award (Jack Brockhoff Foundation) - 2021
- Dean's Commendation for Doctoral Thesis Excellence (The University of Adelaide) - 2018
- PhD Scholarship, Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship (The Australian Government) - 2015-2018
- Best Young Researcher of the Year (Mekelle University, Ethiopia) - 2014
- Master of Public Health Scholarship (Mekelle University, Ethiopia) - 2010-2012
As an NHMRC Emerging Leadership 1 Fellow (2022–2026), Dr Melaku leads a research program at Flinders University that advances the application of causal inference and machine learning in nutritional epidemiology. His work focuses on (1) developing innovative methodologies to identify dietary patterns and components associated with health outcomes, and (2) quantifying their impact on population health. Alongside his research, he is dedicated to capacity building, delivering training in advanced quantitative methods for early- and mid-career researchers and higher degree research students, and strengthening collaborative research through his recognised expertise in methodological and statistical approaches in lifestyle epidemiology.
- Nutritional epidemiology
- Epidemiology
- Causal inference
- Data science
2024- Member, Public Health Association Australia
2022- Member, Society for Epidemiological Research (SER)
2018- Member, Australasia Epidemiological Association
2016- Member, Nutrition Society of Australia
2017- Founding member, Australian-based Ethiopian Researchers Network (ABReN)
2013- Member, Global Burden of Disease Expert Group
2009- Lifetime member, Ethiopian Public Health Association (EPHA)
- Epidemiology
- Nutrition
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South Australia 5042
South Australia | Northern Territory
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