A/Prof Damian Santomauro is based at the School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, and leads the Epidemiology and Burden of Disease Research Stream based at the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research (QCMHR). He is also an Affiliate Associate Professor at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), University of Washington, where he serves as the Mental Disorders Team Lead and the DisMod-AT Team Lead for the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study. Driven by a commitment to improving global mental health, A/Prof Santomauro is responsible for all mental disorder epidemiological and burden estimates reported by the GBD Study and has played a key role in uncovering burden not currently represented by the GBD Study such as burden of binge eating disorder, other specified feeding and eating disorders, and somatoform disorders. He also modelled the worldwide impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on depressive and anxiety disorders, quantified the excess self-harm mortality among autistic persons globally, and developed a novel cohort method to estimate the burden of depressive and anxiety disorders due to bullying victimization. A/Prof Santomauro also quantified the minimally adequate treatment coverage for depressive disorders globally, and the burden of anxiety disorders that could be averted under ideal treatment coverage conditions. His research continues to inform international mental health policy, helping to ensure that the true extent of mental disorder burden is recognised and averted.