ProfessorDavid Dunstan

Professor David Dunstan is Chair of Lifestyle and Diabetes at Deakin University and Head of the Baker–Deakin Department of Lifestyle and Diabetes, a joint appointment between the Deakin Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition and the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute. He also leads the Physical Activity Laboratory and the Obesity and Cardiometabolic Disease Program at the Baker Institute, where he directs a large multidisciplinary team focused on lifestyle-based prevention and management of cardiometabolic disease.

Professor Dunstan is internationally recognised for pioneering work on the health risks of too much sitting and the benefits of ‘sit less, move more’ strategies in people living with or at risk of chronic disease. His program uniquely integrates epidemiology, mechanistic laboratory studies, pragmatic randomised trials and implementation research to understand how breaking up prolonged sitting and increasing physical activity can improve cardiometabolic and brain health, and how these strategies can be embedded at scale in workplaces and healthcare settings.

Professor Dunstan has been Chief Investigator on numerous nationally and internationally funded projects, attracting major support from the National Health and Medical Research Council, Australian Research Council, VicHealth, the Heart Foundation and leading international funders. He has previously held an NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship, an ARC Future Fellowship and a VicHealth Public Health Research Fellowship. His publications are highly cited in the field, and his work has informed national and international guidelines and position statements, including the American Diabetes Association’s recommendations on physical activity, exercise and sedentary behaviour in diabetes.

He has received multiple honours for his contributions, including recognition as a Highly Cited Researcher and leadership awards from key scientific bodies. Professor Dunstan is currently Vice‑President of the Asia‑Pacific Society for Physical Activity and serves on several national and international advisory and guideline groups. His ongoing research is focused on implementing effective, scalable ‘sit less and move more’ interventions in clinical pathways for people with type 2 diabetes, obesity and related cardiometabolic conditions, and on understanding how sedentary behaviour influences brain health and healthy ageing.