Vicki L. Clifton

Biography

Professor Vicki Clifton is an Amplify Professorial Fellow and Betty McGrath Fellow at the Mater Research Institute and University of Queensland, Brisbane Australia leading the Pregnancy and Development Group and Principal Investigator of the Queensland Family Cohort Study.

Prof Clifton was a National Health and Medical Research Council Research Fellow (2004-2022). Vicki was employed at the Robinson Research Institute, School of Paediatrics and Reproductive Health at the University of Adelaide from January 2008 to April 2015 after many years at the Mothers and Babies Research Centre in Newcastle, Australia. While at the Robinson Research Institute she was Director of Clinical Research at the Lyell McEwin Hospital in Adelaide, Australia (2009-2014) and leader of the Allergy Research Priority. Prof Clifton spent many years as Treasurer and then the first female President of the Endocrine Society of Australia (2004-2013). She is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and obtained a Diploma of Management from the University of Adelaide. Prof Clifton is internationally recognized for her research into the human placenta and was the first female Editor of the Placenta Journal (2012-2018). Her current research focusses on the impact of maternal asthma and other health complications during pregnancy on placental function, fetal growth and childhood development. She has a specific interest in the sex specific differences in the fetal-placental response to a complication of pregnancy understanding the different strategies male and female fetuses institute to cope with an adverse event in pregnancy and how this ensures their survival in early life.