Ollie Jay

Ollie Jay is Professor of Heat & Health at The University of Sydney. He is an NHMRC Leadership (L1) Fellow, and Director of the new Heat & Health Research Incubator in the Faculty of Medicine and Health. Ollie is also Director of the Thermal Ergonomics Laboratory in Sydney School of Health Sciences, as well as Leader of the Charles Perkins Centre (CPC) Research Node on Climate Adaptation and Health, and a member of the Sydney Environment Institute.

Originally from the UK, Ollie joined the University of Sydney in 2014. He obtained his PhD in Thermal Physiology from Loughborough University in 2002, which was then followed 4½ years of international postdoctoral research experience at Simon Fraser University (2003-05) and the University of Ottawa (2005-08). Prior to moving to Australia, he was a tenured Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa in Canada (2008-2013).

His research primarily focuses on developing a better understanding of the physiological and biophysical factors that lead to the negative effects of extreme heat and hot weather on human health and wellbeing across the human lifespan.

To date, he has a total of 175+ peer-reviewed research publications in international journals (120+ as senior author) including papers in JAMA, Nature Reviews Disease Primers, Annals of Internal Medicine, Lancet Planetary Health, Nature Communications and Journal of Physiology (London). He was also the co-lead of the first-ever Lancet Series (1 first-author (cover story), 1 senior author paper) on Heat and Health. Ollie has received funding from organisations such as National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Wellcome Trust, MS Research Australia, and the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage. He has recently led extreme heat policy development for Sports Medicine Australia, Tennis Australia (including the Australian Open), Cricket Australia, and the National Rugby League (including the 2017 Rugby League World Cup).

He is Senior Deputy Editor for Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, and an Editorial Board member for Journal of Applied Physiology, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise (MSSE), and Energy & Buildings. In 2017, he was the recipient of the Vice-Chancellor’s Award For Excellence: Outstanding Research and Teaching a 2-year University of Sydney Research Accelerator (SOAR) Fellowship. In 2018 & 19, he received 2 consecutive SUPRA Research Supervisor of the Year awards.

Ollie is a former Board of Trustees Member and a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and has been an invited plenary speaker at numerous national and international conferences. He has active research collaborations within Australia, Canada, USA, and UK, and his research has featured in articles/interviews for TIME magazine, New York Times, BBC, ABC, CBC, NPR, Sydney Morning Herald, The Globe & Mail, The Weather Channel and Scientific American.