Ajay Mahal is the Deputy Director and Professor of Health Economics and Health Systems at the Nossal Institute for Global Health at the University of Melbourne (Australia). He has previously served as the Alan and Elizabeth Finkel Chair of Global Health at Monash University and as an Associate Professor at Harvard University. Dr. Mahal holds degrees from Columbia University (Ph. D in Economics, 1995) and the University of Delhi (M.A. (Economics), 1986; B.A. (Economics), 1984). His research interests span a range of economically relevant questions pertaining to health financing and health sector reform, household and national level impacts of (ill) health, ageing and its implications for health systems, and the design and evaluation of health system interventions. He has engaged in health system and policy research projects in Bangladesh, Botswana, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, India, Malaysia, Jamaica, Nigeria, PNG, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, and Ukraine.