Jennifer Schumann

Associate Professor Jennifer Schumann is Head of the Drug Intelligence Unit at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine and Monash University’s Department of Forensic Medicine. Jennifer has a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Pharmacology (2006) and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Forensic Medicine (2011) from Monash University. She is a forensic pharmacologist and toxicologist, with almost two decades experience interpreting the involvement of alcohol and other drugs in death. Jennifer utilises her expertise in Forensic Toxicology and Public Health to examine the harms associated with drugs in the community and inform Australian public health policy and practice, with a particular focus on addiction, misuse, and overdose of pharmaceutical and illicit substances. 

In 2014, Jennifer was a visiting postdoctoral researcher at the Karolinska Institute and National Board of Forensic Medicine, Sweden, and the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research in Paris, supported by a Victoria Fellowship and an Australian French Association for Science and Technology Fellowship. Jennifer is Vice President of the Forensic and Clinical Toxicology Association (FACTA), Editor of The International Association of Forensic Toxicologists (TIAFT) Bulletin, and a reviewer for some of the top ranked international journals in substance abuse and legal medicine. She has published extensively in the peer-reviewed literature, presented her research at conferences throughout the world, and has a strong record of collaboration with clinical and forensic researchers throughout the world. Her research has stimulated public debate, engaged media and been directly responsible for changes in Australian policy and practice.