Dr Bastien Lechat is an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow and a Senior Research Fellow at Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute (FHMRI): Sleep Health. His research is dedicated to advancing global sleep health through evidence-based approaches, driven by a commitment to making innovative sleep health solutions accessible to everyone. His research mainly focuses on revolutionizing the diagnosis and management of sleep disorders through the integration of artificial intelligence, big data analytics, digital health and minimally invasive wearable technologies. Despite his ECR status he has already established an independent research program in the use of digital technologies at FHMRI: Sleep Health. Dr Lechat is globally renowned for novel contributions to OSA diagnosis and management. 

• Obstructive sleep apnea
• Sleep Health
• Digital Health
• Signal Processing
• Epidemiology
• Wearables
• Machine learning
• Signal processing

International Standing: Globally renowned for novel contributions to OSA diagnosis and management. Although his first publication was in 2020, in Expertscape, he is ranked in the top 5% of internationally published authors in the last 10 years in the area of sleep apnea syndromes.

Publications: Dr Lechat has published 58 publications in the last 5y in top-ranked sleep/cardiorespiratory (e.g., Am J Respir Crit Care Med, Eur Respir J, Chest, Ann Am Thor Soc & Sleep), cross-disciplinary (e.g., Nature Comms, Nature Dig Health). He has 20 publications as 1st or senior author, including 16 in top 10% journals. As of 2024, 50% of his publications were in the top 10% most cited worldwide. His 5-year field weighted citation index (FWCI) is 2.5, meaning his research is cited 2.5 times more than the average for the field. His H-index is 19 https://scholar.google.com.au/citations?user=-Q__PYIAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao.

Research Support: Dr. Lechat has attracted continuous competitive fellowship and grant funding totalling $6.4m as CI, as well as >$5.3m as AI from various sources including NHMRC and industry. In 2023, Dr Lechat was awarded an NHMRC Investigator grant Emerging Leadership 1 ($670,000).

Community Engagement Activities: Dr Lechat is a frequent contributor to online and radio media. Recent print media examples include published article in Time Magazine on the effect of climate change on OSA (https://time.com/7286589/climate-change-sleep-apnea/). Dr Lechat’s research program of digital technologies and sleep health was featured in a 3-part TV series: “Australia's Sleep Revolution with Dr Michael Mosley” that aired on SBS in 2024 and won many major film and science awards (e.g 2024 SA Excellence in Science & Industry Collaboration Award, Asian Academy Award for best documentary).

Key awards/Honours: As further evidence of his leadership in research, he has received 18 awards in the past 4 years including the 2023 Early Career Researcher Award (Flinders University – College of Medicine and Public Health), 2023 Vice Chancellor Early Career Researcher Award (Flinders University), the 2023 Am Aced Sleep Med Merit Award, European Respiratory Society Congress Young Scientist award 2025 and the International Trainee Award at the American Thoracic Society Conference 2025. In 2025, in recognition of his career accomplishments and significance of his research work to the sleep field internationally, he was awarded the highly prestigious American Thoracic Society (ATS) James B. Skatrud New Investigator Award.