Navoda Liyana Pathirana

• Research Fellow with expertise in data-driven policy solutions in public health and nutrition, sustainability assessment,and climate change.
• Excellent collaborator with high-level technical, statistical, and computer expertise in statistical data modelling and data visualization using R and MATLAB.
• Charismatic and highly committed lecturer with more than two years of experience in lecturing both online and in-person to undergraduate and graduate students at national and international universities.

• Liyana Pathirana N, Zorbas C, Khadka S, Pokhrel H P, Paudyal N, Dharmakeerthi N et al. Addressing systemic exclusion
  and gender norms to improve nutritional outcomes for adolescent girls in South Asia, BMJ 2025; 388 :e080360, doi:10.1136/bmj-2024-080360
• Huse O, Sethi V, Rowel D, Shahula Ahmed A, Liyana Pathirana N, Arora M et al. Home, school, and retail food environments driving obesity among adolescent girls in South Asia BMJ 2025; 388 :e080359 doi:10.1136/bmj-2024-080359.
• Khadka S, Pathirana N L, Sethi V, Andreev-jitaru D, Nair A, Backholer K et al. Closing the digital gender divide could helpimprove adolescent girls’ health and nutrition across South Asia BMJ 2025; 388 :e080812 doi:10.1136/bmj-2024-080812.
• Reiner V., Liyana Pathirana N N, Sun Y, Lenzen M, and Malik A, (2024), Wish you were here? The economic impact of the tourism shutdown from Australiaʼs 2019-20 ʻblack summerʼ bushfires. Economics of Disasters and ClimateChange. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3376778/v1.
• Liyanapathirana N N, Grench A, Li M, Malik A, Ribeiro R, Burykin T, Lenzen M, and Raubenheimer D, (2023),Nutritional, environmental, and economic impacts of ultra-processed food consumption in Australia, Public Health Nutrition. https://doi.org/10.1017/s136898002300232x.
• Liyanapathirana N N, Grech A, Li M, Malik A, Lenzen M, Raubenheimer D, (2022), Nutrient-sensitive approach for sustainability assessment of Australian macronutrient dietary recommendations, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajcnut.2022.11.002.
• Liyanapathirana N N, Grench A, Li M, Malik A, Lenzen M, and Raubenheimer D, (2022), Nutrient-sensitive approach for sustainability assessment of different dietary patterns in Australia, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition:nqab429, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqab429.
• Malik A, Lenzen M, Li M, Fry J, Liyanapathirana N, Herold N, Beyer K, Boylan S, Lee A, Pardoe J, Schlosberg D, Raubenheimer D, (2022), Impacts of climate change and extreme weather on food supply chains cascade across sectors and regions in Australia. Nature Food, 3, 631–643, https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-022-00570-3.
• Liyana Pathirana, Navoda Nirmani and Sun, Ya-yen and Li, Mengyu and Wakiyama, Takako and Faturay, Futu and Singh, Shweta and Stevens, Miriam Chrisandra and Raubenheimer, David and Lenzen, Manfred, (2024), Modelling Potential Environmental and Socio-Economic Impacts of Substituting Livestock Meat with Soy-Based Meat Substitutes.Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4736707 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4736707 (under review in Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions).
• Liyana Pathirana N N, Mora C J, Sidhu B, Shanmuga S S, and Malik A (2024), Physical climate risk in corporate supply chains (under review in Ecological Economics)
• Wang L, Ying W J, Liyana Pathirana N, Martino F, Mengshan R, and Backholer K, (2024), The digital marketing by big bubble tea brand in China in 2023: A content analysis (under review in Public Health Nutrition)
• Liyana Pathirana N N, and Hadjikakou M, (2025), “The devil is in the details” – Product-specific supply chain emissions are key to identifying optimal mitigation strategies in food systems (under review in Environmental Research:Food Systems).

• Scientific symposium on AI and Beyond: Novel Approaches to Protect Children from Unhealthy Food Marketing on Digital Media, 23rd International Congress on Nutrition, 24th to 29th of August 2025.
• SCANNER AI system and youth’s exposure to online marketing of harmful products, Australian Public Health Conference 2024, Perth, Australia, held on 17th to 19th of September 2024.
• Screen capture and AI: the future of digital food marketing, World Public Health Nutrition Congress 2024, London,United Kingdom, 10th to 13th of June 2024.
• Future of digital marketing regulations – Screen capture and AI, 2024 Food Governance Conference, Sydney, Australia,14th to 16th of February 2024.
• Nutrient-sensitive Approach for Sustainability Assessment of Australian Macronutrient Dietary Recommendations, 13th International Conference on Food Studies, Jalisco, Mexico, 18th to 20th October 2023.
• Testing the effectiveness of SCANNER to detect unhealthy food marketing, Australian Public Health Conference 2023,Hobart, Australia, 26th to 28th September 2023.
• SCANNER - Deep Learning System to detect and classify unhealthy marketing, IHT Digital Health Symposium, Melbourne,Australia, 23rd August, 2023.
• Nutrient-sensitive approach for sustainability assessment of different dietary patterns in Australia, Population Health Congress, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia, 21st to 23rd September 2022.
• Modelling the impact of the foods consumed in Australia on life cycle-based environmental indicators using nutrition geometry, IELab Conference 2020 in conjunction with ALCAS Symposium 2020, Sydney, NSW, Australia, 3rd to 5th February 2020.

• Unmasking the dark side of harmful digital marketing, Dr Navoda Liyana Pathirana, Dr Florentine Martino, Dr KathrynBackholer (au DA Community grant), 2025: $40 000.
• #DigitalMarketingDenmark, Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen and the National Institute of Public Health in collaboration with Deakin University (Danish Cancer Society's Prevention lab grant), 2025: $20 000.
• Better Knowledge for Better Diets and Growth of Adolescent Girls in South Asia (Phase 3), Dr Navoda LiyanaPathirana, Prof Kathryn Backholer, Dr Erica Reeve, Ms Seema Khadka, Ms Carolina Hargous, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), 2024: $60, 968.
• Quantifying the co-benefits of a sugary drinks tax in Australia, Dr Navoda Liyana Pathirana, Dr Erica Reeves, DrMichalis Hadjikakou, Prof Kathryn Backholer, Prof Gary Sacks, Prof Manfred Lenzen, Institute for Health Transformations Seed grants, 2024: $18 417
• Theo Murphy 2023-2024 Participation Support Grant to attend the Food Governance Conference 2024 held at Sydney, Australia: $1900
• Better Knowledge for Better Diets and Growth of Adolescent Girls in South Asia (Phase 2),Prof Kathryn Backholer, Dr Christina Zorbas, Mrs Cherie Russell, Mr Oliver Huse, Dr Navoda Liyana Pathirana, Ms Ella Robinson, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), 2023: $71,121

• United Nations Childrenʼs Fund (UNICEF), Overweight and Obesity among Children and Adolescents in Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka, UNICEF Nourishing South Asia Reports, Issue 4, UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia, Kathmandu, 2024.

The report was prepared by Kathryn Backholer, Oliver Huse, Ella Robinson, Cherie Russell, Christina Zorbas, Navoda LiyanaPathirana, Christine Dove and Erica Reeve, Deakin University, Australia; and Vani Sethi, Zivai Murira, Dorina Andreev-Jitaru,Afrika Mukaneto and Aasha Chhetri, United Nations Childrenʼs Fund

Link: https://www.unicef.org/rosa/reports/overweight-and-obesity-among-children-and-adolescents 

• United Nations Childrenʼs Fund (UNICEF), Young Peoplesʼ Perspectives on Food Environments and Food Choices in South Asia,UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia, Kathmandu, 2024

The report was prepared by Navoda Liyana Pathirana, Kathryn Backholer and Oliver Huse, Deakin University, Australia;  and Afrika Mukaneto, Dorina Andreev-Jitaru, Aasha Chhetri, Vani Sethi and Zivai Murira, United Nations Childrenʼs Fund.

Link: https://www.unicef.org/rosa/reports/young-peoples-perspectives-food-environments-and-food-choices 

• #Digital Youth – How children and young people are targeted with harmful product marketing online, a short report released at agathering of experts, community leaders and young people at Parliament House, Canberra, Australia to discuss the impacts ofharmful product marketing on young people and potential policy solutions on 4th of June, 2024 organised by Foundation forAlcohol Research and Education (FARE).

The report was prepared by Navoda Liyana Pathirana and Kathryn Backholer, Deakin University

• Invited speaker on "Unmasking the Dark side: Using AI tools to Inform Regulatory Measures for Harmful Digital Marketing" at 2024 Melbourne Conference on Commercial Determinants of Health organised by APSAD on 26th of July2024 at University of Melbourne.
• Invited speaker on "Child rights, harmful marketing, and future of marketing regulations" at Barwon Health and Deakin University Research and Grand Round recognising WHO World Health Day 2024: My Health, My Right held on 26th of March 2024 at John Lindell Theatre at University Hospital Geelong.
• Invited speaker on the career pathways in the field of food systems sustainability at SURMOUNT 2023 organized by Association of Food Science and Technology, Department of Food Science and Technology, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka.
• Invited speaker on Academic Opportunities and How to Seize Them at the Round Table Discussion organized by Alumni committee of Association of Food Science and Technology, Department of Food Science and Technology, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka.
• Invited panel speaker on the topic of "What multidisciplinary action is required to tackle the rise in non-communicable disease in Australia" at Global Health Conference on 7th and 8th of October 2023 at the University of Melbourne.
• Invited Speaker on "Building an Artificial Intelligence System for monitoring unhealthy (food, tobacco and alcohol) advertising to children" at Strategic Public Interest Litigation for Transparency and Accountability of Harmful Digital Marketing: A Researcher-Regulator-Community Dialogue on 25 to 26th of September 2023 at Melbourne Law School.
• Radio interview on Radio Adelaide's Breakfast Show on 12th April 2022 about technologies for climate change mitigation.
• Co-authored an article on 'Emerging tech in the food, transport and energy sector can help counter the effects of climate change in The Conversation on 8th April 2022.
• Provide technical expertise for dietary greenhouse gas emission calculations in the development of the 'Greener' app

• Selected to participate in 2025 Future Leaders Program, hosted by the Planetary Health Equity Hothouse, within the School of Regulation and Global Governance, the Australian National University.
• The Institute for Health Transformation Impact Award 2024 on 21st of November 2024.
• HSD People and Impact Awards – for Recognition for Collaborative Team at School Awards of School of Health and Social Development at Deakin University on 20th of November 2024.
• Early-Mid Career Public Health Advocacy Cadetship for year 2024 from the PHAA Victorian branch.
• Group Award for Excellence in Research Partnerships at 2024 Faculty of Health Partnerships in Practice Awards at Deakin University.
• Group Award for Research Excellence in Multidisciplinary Research at 2023 EMCR Awards of Institute for Health Transformations.
• Emerging Scholar Award for the Thirteenth International Conference on Food Studies at México on October 2023Australian