Professor Karen Canfell is internationally recognised for her work on optimising cervical cancer screening in the era of HPV vaccination and on the prospects for cervical cancer elimination. Based on evidence generated by her team, in 2017 the Australian National Cervical Screening Program transitioned from two-yearly Pap smears to five-yearly primary HPV screening – as a result Australia is set to be the first country to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health issue. Her team’s work on the global impact of scaled-up cervical cancer prevention initiatives is supporting the World Health Organisation’s call-to-action towards global cervical cancer elimination.