astronomy

Raina MacIntyre

Raina MacIntyre is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Raina MacIntyre rather than just read about it. In short: Raina MacIntyre is an Australian epidemiologist and academic. She is the Professor of Global Biosecurity within the Kirby Institute at University of New South Wales and a National Health and Medical Research Council Principal Research Fellow, who leads a research program on the prevention and control of infectious diseases.

Key takeaways

Raina MacIntyre belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Raina MacIntyre to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Raina MacIntyre from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Raina MacIntyre is an Australian epidemiologist and academic. She is the Professor of Global Biosecurity within the Kirby Institute at University of New South Wales and a National Health and Medical Research Council Principal Research Fellow, who leads a research program on the prevention and control of infectious diseases. She is an expert media advisor and commentator on Australia's response to COVID-19.

Early life and education Born in Colombo in 1964, MacIntyre moved to Australia in 1973. She was educated at Sydney Girls' High School, where she graduated as (equal) Dux of the school, before studying medicine at the University of Sydney. She was among the first graduates of the Master of Applied Epidemiology program established at the Australian National University by American epidemiologist Michael Lane, to whom she credits her interest in infectious disease epidemiology. She is the daughter of Sri Lankan-Australian playwright Ernest MacIntyre and Eleanor Nalini MacIntyre.

Career MacIntyre's work is focused on emerging infections, encompassing vaccines, personal protective equipment, aerosol dynamics, respiratory pathogen transmission, and the detection and prevention of bioterrorism. Other research interests include medical ethics and the prevention of disease in older people. Macintyre has more than 380 peer-reviewed publications, and contributes to expert committees and editorial boards. After completing her PhD under Aileen Plant, MacIntyre was awarded a Harkness Fellowship to Johns Hopkins University. In Australia, MacIntyre became "a familiar face on television and radio" during the Covid-19 pandemic, her epidemiological commentary "calmly delivered from her bedroom, where she continues her research almost around the clock".

Media MacIntyre has been a regular commentator and contributor to Covid epidemiology, in The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, as well as ABC News and Q+A. In a lunch interview with The Sydney Morning Herald she was described as a 'globally renowned" and "the cautious coronavirus communicator". MacIntyre has been interviewed extensively for her expertise during the pandemic in Australia, including an interview on booster jabs, by Norman Swan from the ABC, and about vaccination roll-outs across different states. She is recognised as one of the "most recognisable faces whom the Australian media has designated an expert during COVID-19". Her modelling, from the Kirby Institute, has been used to determine whether states will re-open or not. MacIntyre's portrait was painted for the 2021 Archibald Prize by artist Karen Black. Due to the frequent media appearances, she caught Black's fancy and the artist "set her heart on painting the professor for the Archibald Prize". "How she explained the scientific facts around aspects of the virus was easy to comprehend," Karen Black commented.

Books Macintyre, Raina (2022). Dark Winter: An insider's guide to pandemics and biosecurity. Kensington, NSW: NewSouth Books. ISBN 978-1-74223-767-1. OCLC 1344309165. Macintyre, Raina (2025). Vaccine Nation: Science, reason and the threat to 200 years of progress. Kensington, NSW: NewSouth Books. ISBN 978-1-76117-005-8. OCLC 1481633883.

Prizes and awards 2003 – Frank Fenner Prize 2007 – Sir Henry Wellcome Medal and Prize from the Association of Military Surgeons of the US for her work on bioterrorism 2014 – Peter Baume Public Health Impact Prize 2014 – Public Health Association of Australia, National Immunisation Achievement Award 2016 – Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales 2017 – CAPHIA Research Team Prize 2021 – Women's Agenda Frontline Hero 2022 – Winner, Department of Defence Eureka Prize for Leadership in Science and Innovation 2024 – Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences

Selected publications Narasimhan, Padmanesan; Wood, James; MacIntyre, Chandini Raina; Mathai, Dilip (12 February 2013). "Risk Factors for Tuberculosis". Pulmonary Medicine. 2013 e828939. doi:10.1155/2013/828939. ISSN 2090-1836. PMC 3583136. PMID 23476764. MacIntyre, C. Raina; Cauchemez, Simon; Dwyer, Dominic E.; Seale, Holly; Cheung, Pamela; Browne, Gary; Fasher, Michael; Wood, James; Gao, Zhanhai; Booy, Robert; Ferguson, Neil (February 2009). "Face Mask Use and Control of Respiratory Virus Transmission in Households". Emerging Infectious Diseases. 15 (2): 233–241. doi:10.3201/eid1502.081166. ISSN 1080-6040. PMC 2662657. PMID 19193267. Bahl, Prateek; Doolan, Con; de Silva, Charitha; Chughtai, Abrar Ahmad; Bourouiba, Lydia; MacIntyre, C Raina (1 May 2022). "Airborne or Droplet Precautions for Health Workers Treating Coronavirus Disease 2019?". The Journal of Infectious Diseases. 225 (9): 1561–1568. doi:10.1093/infdis/jiaa189. ISSN 0022-1899. PMC 7184471. PMID 32301491. MacIntyre, C. Raina; Seale, Holly; Dung, Tham Chi; Hien, Nguyen Tran; Nga, Phan Thi; Chughtai, Abrar Ahmad; Rahman, Bayzidur; Dwyer, Dominic E.; Wang, Quanyi (1 April 2015). "A cluster randomised trial of cloth masks compared with medical masks in healthcare workers". BMJ Open. 5 (4) e006577. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2014-006577. ISSN 2044-6055. PMC 4420971. PMID 25903751. Ngonghala, Calistus N.; Iboi, Enahoro; Eikenberry, Steffen; Scotch, Matthew; MacIntyre, Chandini Raina; Bonds, Matthew H.; Gumel, Abba B. (1 July 2020). "Mathematical assessment of the impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions on curtailing the 2019 novel Coronavirus". Mathematical Biosciences. 325 108364. doi:10.1016/j.mbs.2020.108364. ISSN 0025-5564. PMC 7252217. PMID 32360770.

References

External links Stick to your guns – Women's Agenda interview by Madeline Hislop, 15 Jul 2021 Vaccines, variants and the post-COVID future – episode in Kirby Seminar Series, 20 May 2021

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Raina MacIntyre

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Raina MacIntyre claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Raina MacIntyre before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Raina MacIntyre ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Raina MacIntyre

In research: Raina MacIntyre appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Raina MacIntyre in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Raina MacIntyre is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1964 births, Academic staff of the University of New South Wales, Australian National University alumni, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Raina MacIntyre outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Raina MacIntyre in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Raina MacIntyre means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Raina MacIntyre out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Raina MacIntyre in simple terms?

Why does Raina MacIntyre matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Raina MacIntyre?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Raina MacIntyre.