Dr Christos Symeonides

Dr Symeonides is a Consultant General and Developmental Paediatrician at the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne and in private practice, and a Postgraduate Research Scholar at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) where he is completing a PhD through the University of Melbourne. Dr Symeonides has an undergraduate Honours degree in Neuroscience from the University of Edinburgh, where he attained his medical degree in 2004. He completed specialist training as a general paediatrician in Melbourne in 2013 and has specialist expertise in child neurodevelopment, emotional and developmental disorders as a Developmental Paediatrician.

Dr Symeonides' research and expertise is in neurodevelopmental epidemiology and environmental neurotoxicology, where he is establishing himself as an early career researcher. His PhD thesis investigates environmental exposure to industrial chemicals and early childhood neurodevelopment, with focus on maternal exposure to ortho-phthalate diesters (‘phthalates’) during pregnancy and subsequent early childhood emotional, behavioural and developmental outcomes within the Barwon Infant Study (BIS), a major NHMRC-funded birth cohort of more than 1000 children. Dr Symeonides is leading the development of both measurements of chemical exposure and longitudinal neurodevelopmental assessment within BIS. Working with Professor Anne-Louise Ponsonby, he has continued to extend analysis of that rich data and develop ongoing neurodevelopmental follow-up with children.