Professor Martin Holt

I specialise in HIV prevention research with gay and bisexual men. I'm a social scientist by training, and have worked at the Centre for Social Research in Health since 2003. Over the last 15 years my research has guided the introduction of newer forms of HIV prevention, such as pre-exposure prophylaxis and treatment as prevention, and investigated the impact of these strategies on community norms, attitudes and practices. My team's research was the first to show how the introduction of PrEP affected condom use at a national level. More recently, I have been advocating for implementation scientists to consider how HIV prevention coverage can be achieved by using a range of effective strategies (rather than focusing on one, like PrEP). I have also worked with colleagues to assess the impact of COVID-19 and mpox on HIV-related behaviour.

I lead the GBQ+ Community Periodic Surveys, the main part of Australia's behavioural surveillance system for HIV, supported by federal and state/territory health funding and NHMRC Partnership Project funding (2021-26). I am also the senior investigator on a long term study of the social aspects of biomedical HIV prevention for gay and bisexual men (the PrEPARE project). I am a chief investigator on a range of other projects, including:

• Evidence-making and implementing interventions in a viral elimination era, ARC Discovery Project led by A/Prof Kari Lancaster
• PRISM: Implementation research to guide the elimination of HIV transmission in NSW, NHMRC Partnership Project led by Prof Andrew Grulich
• Networks in Flux: Examining how sector relationships adapt to rapid change, ARC Discovery Project led by Prof Graham Brown
• Responding to mpox virus among gay and bisexual men in Australia (RE:MPXV), led by Dr James MacGibbon
• TraX, national online cohort study assessing mpox vaccine uptake and efficacy, led by Prof Andrew Grulich and Dr Mo Hammoud

I am actively involved with the HIV sector, LGBTIQ community organisations, and professional societies. I have been a Deputy Editor of the Journal of the International AIDS Society since 2013, an Associate Editor of AIDS and Behavior since 2018, and an Associate Editor of Sexual Health since 2023.

In 2022, I was appointed as Research Director in the Faculty of Arts, Design & Architecture, UNSW Sydney, and from 2024 I am serving as Associate Dean, Research Quality & Culture in the Faculty.