Melody Ding

Melody Ding is an Associate Professor at the University of Sydney. Ding is an epidemiologist and population behavioural scientist in Sydney School of Public Health in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney. She is also a member of the Charles Perkins Centre and the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre. Ding's research aims to improve population health through epidemiological research and behavioural change.

Career

Melody Ding completed her undergraduate education in marine biology at Ocean University of China^[1] and her PhD through the Joint Doctoral Program in Public Health at the University of California San Diego and San Diego State University in 2012. She relocated to Australia for her postdoctoral research and is now a Senior Researcher at the University of Sydney.

Ding's research program lies at the intersection of lifestyles, physical activity, epidemiology, and chronic disease prevention and is devoted to generating policy-relevant research outcomes.^[2] She "aims to identify disease-causing risk factors, develop solutions for prevention, educate the public, and guide evidence-based policymaking."^[3] Ding expanded the field of lifestyle epidemiology by studying interactions among lifestyle risk factors and their impact on physical and mental health and longevity, including obesity, physical activity, sleep, social participation, retirement, and a vegetarian diet. Her research identified the combinations of physical activity, not smoking and active social participation as the strongest predictor for longevity.^[4] One facet of Ding's research is identifying changes that can be made to the built environment, such as making cities more 'walkable', to prevent chronic diseases, such as obesity and cardiovascular disease. Ding's research into the COVID-19 pandemic and physical activity has shown the effects of the pandemic varied around the world, potentially due to differences in infection control strategies between countries.^[5]

Since 2013, Melody has been awarded $2.5 million in research funding from the NHMRC, Heart Foundation, and other organisations. In 2021 Ding was awarded an NHMRC Investigator Grant – Emerging Leadership 2^[6][7] and a NSW Health Cardiovascular Early-Mid Career Researcher Grant to design a decision-support tool for physical activity strategies.^[8]

Ding published the first-ever estimate for the global economic burden of physical inactivity, showing that inactivity cost healthcare systems $53 billion in 2013 and physical inactivity-related deaths cost the world $14 billion in productivity losses.^[9] This research also showed that a larger proportion of the economic burden is bourne by high income countries, whereas the low- and middle-income countries bear more of the disease burden.

Awards and prizes

Ding's work on the global economic burden of physical inactivity has become one of the most frequently cited papers in physical activity and was recognised as one of the Most Impactful Publication in 2016 by American Heart Association.^[10] Ding has published over 160 peer reviewed papers and is one of the top two percent of researchers in her field according to a Stanford University study in 2022.^[11][12]

Ding has also been awarded:

• 2021 The Ministerial Award for Rising Stars in Cardiovascular Research^[13][14]
• 2019 Eureka Prize for Emerging Leader in Science^[15]
• 2019 Homeward Bound Participant^[16]
• 2018 Sydney Research Accelerator (SOAR) Fellowship^[17]
• 2018 AIPS NSW Young Tall Poppy of the Year^[18]
• 2017 University of Sydney Vice-Chancellor's Awards for Excellence: Outstanding Early Career Research^[19]

Media

Ding has published in The Conversation on retirement,^[20] diet,^[21] risk for Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes,^[22] health impacts of sitting,^[23] and a Research Check assessing a reported potential link between nicotine and COVID-19.^[24] Her work has been covered in The Conversation,^[25] The Pulse,^[26] ABC News,^[27] SBS News^[28] and the SMH.^[29][30][31] Ding has provided expert commentary on physical activity on ABC Radio National,^[32] ABC News,^[33][34] BBC News and in the SMH^[35] and The Guardian,^[36] and has been profiled by The Lancet.^[1]

References

1. Lane, Richard (2021-07-31). "Melody Ding: connecting physical activity and public health". The Lancet. 398 (10298): 381. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01417-3. ISSN 0140-6736. PMID 34302765. S2CID 236165166.
2. A/Professor Melody Ding, WINNER 2019 3M Eureka Prize for Emerging Leader in Science, retrieved 2022-11-19
3. "The Young Tall Poppy trifecta". The University of Sydney. Retrieved 2022-11-23.
4. "Dr Melody Ding". AIPS. Retrieved 2022-11-23.
5. "Prevention Research Collaboration Annual Report 2019-2020" (PDF). Prevention Research Collaboration, The University of Sydney. 2020. Retrieved 2022-11-23.
6. National Health and Medical Research Council (2021). "Investigator Grant Applications Recommended for Funding Commencing in 2022" (PDF). Retrieved 2022-11-23.
7. NHMRC Communications (2021-09-13), Associate Professor Melody Ding, University of Sydney, retrieved 2022-11-23
8. "A decision-support tool for physical activity strategies". NSW Health & Medical Research. Retrieved 2022-11-23.
9. Ding, Ding; Lawson, Kenny D.; Kolbe-Alexander, Tracy L.; Finkelstein, Eric A.; Katzmarzyk, Peter T.; Mechelen, Willem van; Pratt, Michael (2016-09-24). "The economic burden of physical inactivity: a global analysis of major non-communicable diseases". The Lancet. 388 (10051): 1311–1324. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(16)30383-X. ISSN 0140-6736. PMID 27475266. S2CID 11173700.
10. "Council on Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health's Most Impactful Publications – 2016" (PDF). American Heart Association. 2016. Retrieved 2022-11-23.
11. "Sydney researchers ranked among global elite". The University of Sydney. Retrieved 2022-11-20.
12. Ioannidis, John P. A. (2022-10-10). "September 2022 data-update for "Updated science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators"". Elsevier Data Repository. 4. Elsevier BV. doi:10.17632/btchxktzyw.4.
13. "NSW awards top female researchers". heartfoundation-prod.azurewebsites.net. Retrieved 2022-11-20.
14. Ministerial Award for Rising Stars in Cardiovascular Research 2021 | Dr Melody Ding, retrieved 2022-11-20
15. "2019 Australian Museum Eureka Prize winners". The Australian Museum. 2019-11-20. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
16. "HB4 (2019) Participants – Homeward Bound". 2018-08-08. Retrieved 2022-11-20.
17. "Sydney Research Accelerator Prizes". The University of Sydney. Retrieved 2022-11-20.
18. "Dr Melody Ding". AIPS. 2019-08-29. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
19. "Vice-Chancellor's Awards for Excellence past recipients". The University of Sydney. Retrieved 2022-11-23.
20. Ding, Melody (12 April 2016). "Retirees, don't worry about your health deteriorating – leaving work can be good for you". The Conversation. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
21. Ding, Melody (2 February 2017). "Do vegetarians live longer? Probably, but not because they're vegetarian". The Conversation. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
22. Chau, Josephine; Ding, Melody (28 September 2017). "Research Check: will binge-watching TV increase your risk for Alzheimer's disease and diabetes?". The Conversation. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
23. Stamatakis, Emmanuel; Gale, Joanne; Ding, Melody (22 April 2019). "How much do sedentary people really need to move? It's less than you think". The Conversation. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
24. Bauman, Adrian; Shepherd, Leah; Ding, Melody (6 May 2020). "Does nicotine protect us against coronavirus?". The Conversation. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
25. Hopkin, Michael (29 August 2019). "Combating cancer, finding frogs, building bones, and capturing carbon all recognised at 2019 Eureka Prizes". The Conversation. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
26. Vesey, Harrison (2020-12-22). "Westmead study finds fitness trackers do help increase activity". thepulse.org.au. Retrieved 2022-11-20.
27. "Exercise during COVID is hard for some and easy for others". ABC News. 2021-09-11. Retrieved 2022-11-23.
28. "A third of Aussies don't exercise enough, global study finds". SBS News. Retrieved 2022-11-23.
29. Berry, Sarah (2021-05-11). "Stop feeling guilty about working out at lunch – it's saving you time". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2022-11-23.
30. Berry, Sarah (2021-12-03). "Everyone is hooked on the idea but 10,000 steps a day is not the ideal". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2022-11-23.
31. Mannix, Liam (2019-08-28). "Scientist wins top award for using your data to make you pay your tax". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
32. "What dose of physical activity is best for you?". ABC Radio National. 2020-11-30. Retrieved 2022-11-23.
33. "Australians' inactivity levels could have major health effects, but some experts say fitness apps could help". ABC News. 2022-01-04. Retrieved 2022-11-23.
34. "Physical inactivity costs world billions of dollars, study finds". ABC News. 2016-07-27. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
35. Gladstone, Craig Butt, Nigel (2019-10-30). "How where you live in Australia can determine how long you live". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
36. "Spike in cycling accidents during Sydney lockdown as more people took to two wheels". the Guardian. 2021-10-30. Retrieved 2022-11-23.