Biography: Professor Nick Crofts AM

Professor Nick Crofts is an epidemiologist and public health practitioner who has been working in the fields of HIV/AIDS, illicit drugs, harm reduction and law enforcement for over 30 years. His major epidemiological work has been on the control of HIV and hepatitis C among injecting drug users in Australia (for which he received an NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship) and globally, including almost every country in Asia, for which he received the International Rolleston Award from the International Harm Reduction Association in 1998.

He was at the Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health for 19 years, where he was instrumental in building its Public and International Health arms, was Deputy Director for five years. He was Director of Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre for three years, and then at the Nossal Institute for Global Health for three years. He was Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the UN Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute in Turin in 2012, and is currently a Senior Expert at the International Development Law Organization in The Hague, resident in Amsterdam. He has been a member of Australia's National Council on AIDS three times, and has performed multiple consultancies for WHO, UNAIDS, UNODC, AusAID and other bilateral and multilateral agencies.

As a designer and technical director of AusAID's flagship HIV/AIDS program in Asia, ARHP 2002-2007, he was instrumental in building capacity among SE Asian police forces in relation to HIV, and has worked in many settings forging relationships between police and public health.

Nick founded the Centre for Law Enforcement and Public Health (CLEPH) in 2009 to promote research and collaboration in the intersection of law enforcement and public health. CLEPH convened a first international conference on Law Enforcement and Public Health in 2012; the international conference is now held annually with occasional regional LEPH conferences (e.g. Africa, 2023). In 2026 the international conference will be held for the 8th time. From the conferences has sprung the Global Law Enforcement and Public Health Association in 2017, which oversees Special Interest Groups across a wide range of issues. An African LEPH network has begun, and GLEPHA is working in the Pacific region on a project to build public health policing there.

GLEPHA is a partner member of the World Federation of Public Health Associations and has uniquely had policy adopted by the WFPHA encouraging public health organisations to engage with police to achieve public health goals.

Nick is especially committed to the area police, health, and community collaborations for harm reduction, and was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2017 for services to HIV prevention.