Brooke Nickel

Dr Brooke Nickel (BSc Hons, MIPH, PhD) is a NHMRC Emerging Leader Research Fellow in The University of Sydney School of Public Health. She is part of the Sydney Health Literacy Lab and Wiser Healthcare Research Collaboration.

Her research focuses on evidence-based healthcare communication and decision making, with a particular focus on cancer; the psychosocial impact of cancer diagnosis and treatment; and overdiagnosis.

The work she has led (first/senior author) has been published in high impact international medical journals in the field including The BMJ, The MJA, JAMA and Lancet series and featured in prestigious international media including The New York Times, The Guardian, The Conversation, the BBC and the ABC. She won the 2025 NSW Young Tall Poppy Science Award, 2025 NSW Premier's Outstanding Early Career Cancer Researcher Award, 2023 International Lisa Schwartz Prize for "communicating the benefits, harms and limitations of medicine" and has been listed in Stanford University/Elsevier top 2% of Scientists since 2023.

She currently leads research related to understanding the benefits and harms of breast density notification in Australia, low-risk cancer communication, and misleading medical marketing on social media. She also leads and collaborates on other national and international cancer, women’s health and public health research.