Seated in front of her funky-coloured bookcases in countless television interviews, her hair in a sleek bob, her eyes sharply framed, she spoke always in those reassuring and mellifluous tones that became for many the only ones they wanted to hear.

The renowned epidemiologist and University of New South Wales professor died peacefully in her sleep on Saturday night, 18 months after being diagnosed with and treated for a brain tumour.

When she announced her diagnosis, the public outpouring of grief was real and visceral: the bitter unfairness of a disease that never discriminates targeting this beloved figure hit hard.

What many never knew, was that before Professor McLaws became a pandemic household name, she was already a revered international figure in the world of disease control and infection prevention, who had worked with Beijing to prevent SARS from becoming a global pandemic; who had become a major figure in the World Health Organization and was responsible for identifying and solving the problem of hospital-led infections; had trained dozens of public health students and supervised countless PhD candidates.

Professor McLaws wrote more than 180 research papers and supervised and supported many PhD students for decades — a key passion of hers which won her a devoted following among many candidates.

The arrival on our shores of COVID-19 was Professor McLaws's moment to shine: all her many years of research and evidence-based public policy work seemed to coalesce into the public-facing role she stepped into.

I'm a bot and I'm open source!