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 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, foodborne disease, influenzas and arboviruses. Before heading into academic, Simon worked as a consultant for the World Health Organization and Vets without Borders in Southeast Asia, and is a founding member of an OIE Collaborating Centre for Diagnostic Test Validation Science in the Asia-Pacific Region.