Associate Professor Amy Peacock (BA Hons, PhD) is a Deputy Director of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) at UNSW Sydney and Head of its Epidemiology and Emerging Trends Division. She leads Drug Trends, Australia’s national drug monitoring system, and is an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow. She is also an Adjunct Researcher at the National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University, and at the University of Tasmania.

Amy is a public health researcher and epidemiologist whose work focuses on identifying, understanding and reducing alcohol and other drug-related harm. Her research spans national drug surveillance, emerging drug threats, overdose and mortality, drug markets, new psychoactive substances, pharmaceutical and illicit opioid use, alcohol-related harm, prevention and harm reduction. She combines epidemiology, longitudinal cohort studies, data linkage, policy evaluation and emerging digital and drug market data. She has authored over 220 peer-reviewed papers, more than 200 research reports, and two book chapters. Her research has been supported by more than $25 million in funding as a chief investigator (>$19M as CIA).

As Program Lead of Drug Trends, Amy oversees Australia’s national illicit drug monitoring system, which is funded by the Australian Government. Drug Trends includes the Illicit Drug Reporting System, the Ecstasy and Related Drugs Reporting System, the National Illicit Drug Indicators Program and the Drug and New Technologies project. These programs collect, analyse and integrate evidence to identify changes in drug use, drug availability and related harms, supporting timely responses by governments, health services and communities.

She is CIA of the NHMRC-funded Australian Parental Supply of Alcohol Longitudinal Study, a prospective cohort of more than 1,900 young Australians, and the MRFF-funded Next Wave study, a prospective cohort of 1,000 young Australians examining how alcohol contexts influence mental and physical health from adolescence into early adulthood.

Amy works with governments, public health agencies, treatment and harm reduction services, people with lived and living experience, and international organisations. Her research has informed major reform in Australian and international policy and practice, including responses to emerging synthetic opioids, drug-related deaths, drug checking, harm reduction and alcohol-related harm. She provides expert advice to Australian and international governments and organisations, including the World Health Organization, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Australian Government, and Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. She has delivered more than 100 national and international presentations, including invited presentations to policymakers, government agencies and international forums.

She is Deputy Regional Editor of Addiction, Senior Editor of Drug and Alcohol Review, a member of the Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs Council, and Associate Member of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.

Amy is available to supervise ILP, Honours, Masters and PhD students.