David is a clinical neonatologist and respiratory physiologist at the Melbourne Children’s Campus (Australia) whose work aims at improving the respiratory outcomes of newborn infants. David currently leads the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute Neonatal Research Program. This is an interconnected program of molecular and clinical science aiming to better understand lung injury and develop new neonatal critical care respiratory support strategies. His research has explored methods of optimising the volume state of the lung with end-expiratory pressure and supporting the respiratory transition at birth with the use of PEEP and dynamic tidal inflations. Recently he has developed a new method to image the human lung at birth and map the evolution of preterm lung injury using proteomics.

David is a member of projects to develop guidelines on neonatal ARDS, chest imaging and Paediatric COVID-19 therapies, and lead investigator of the international POLAR Trial of PEEP strategies to support the preterm lung at birth. David is the Chair of Respiratory Failure Section of the European Society of Paediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care, Commission for the Lancet Commission on the Future of Neonatology and Deputy Co-Chair, Paediatric Panel of the Australian COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce.