2017 The Peter Wills Medal Winner: Professor Kim Mulholland

The Peter Wills Medal was created in honour of a great leader whose work led to the inception of Research Australia. The Peter Wills Medal is the flagship award and recognises someone who has made an outstanding, long-term contribution to building Australia’s international reputation in areas of health and medical research and fostering collaboration for better health.

Congratulations to Award Winner:
Professor Kim Mulholland

Professor Kim Mulholland’s 40 year career in global health has taken him from clinical
care of refugees in India and Sudan to public health and research in the field of child health. Continue reading “2017 The Peter Wills Medal Winner: Professor Kim Mulholland”

Top Award for Australian Paediatrician Professor Kim Mulholland

The illustrious Peter Wills Medal was tonight awarded to Professor Kim Mulholland for his lifetime of research to improve the health of children in developing countries. Prof Mulholland has focused on childhood pneumonia, in particular, the evaluation and introduction of new vaccines for the prevention of pneumonia in the developing world.

In a research career spanning more than 30 years, Professor Mulholland has dedicated himself to leading transformative child health research projects across Africa, Asia and the Pacific with incredible outcomes.

Continue reading “Top Award for Australian Paediatrician Professor Kim Mulholland”

2016 The Peter Wills Medal Winner: Professor Ian Gust AO

Research Australia
Health & Medical Research Awards

2016 The Peter Wills Medal

Created in honour of the great leader whose work led to the inception of Research Australia. The Peter Wills Medal recognises an Australian who has made an outstanding contribution to building Australia’s international reputation in the area of health and medical research, and fostering collaboration for better health.

Congratulations to Award Winner: Professor Ian Gust AO

Continue reading “2016 The Peter Wills Medal Winner: Professor Ian Gust AO”

Australian Health and Medical Research Night of Nights

Media Release: 17 November 2016

Australia’s most inspiring health and medical researchers, advocates and philanthropist were celebrated last night at the 2016 Research Australia Health and Medical Research Awards.

Nadia Levin, CEO of Research Australia, said the night was a magnificent success that paid tribute to the efforts and energy of some of the sectors biggest names and most promising up-and-comers.

“Last nights’ Health and Medical Research Awards prove that Australia’s research sector is a force to be reckoned with,” said Ms Levin.

“We were joined by hundreds of people who tirelessly work to improve the health and wellbeing of our wider community, and it was an honour to acknowledge their work.

“The best health and medical research requires innovation, drive, creativity and ingenuity, and the 2016 Research Australia Award Winners exemplify all of those characteristics,” she said.

Continue reading “Australian Health and Medical Research Night of Nights”

Research Australia Health & Medical Research Awards Nominations Now Open!

Media Release: Tuesday 28 June 2016

The Research Australia Health & Medical Research Awards: Nominations open for fresh faces, experienced hands and every health and medical researcher in between

Applications opened today for the Research Australia Awards, recognising contributions in everything from cutting edge research through to advocacy, and philanthropic work.

In a field dedicated to improving the lives of Australians, the Research Australia Awards are an opportunity to celebrate those who make life-changing advances possible.

“There are so many extraordinary people in this sector who are deserving of recognition, and we are calling for them to nominate themselves and their colleagues,” said CEO of Research Australia, Nadia Levin.

“The Awards are the health and medical research industry’s night of nights – they are the opportunity for the best and brightest in the industry to recognise each other’s achievements.

Continue reading “Research Australia Health & Medical Research Awards Nominations Now Open!”

2015 Peter Wills Medal: Prof Sharon Lewin

Research Australia
Health & Medical Research Awards

2015 Peter Wills Medal

The Peter Wills Medal was created in 2011 to mark research Australia’s 10th anniversary. It recognises an Australian who has made an outstanding contribution to building Australia’s international reputation in the area of health & medical research, and for harnessing government, research, industry and philanthropic collaborations to promote better health

Award Winner

Professor Sharon Lewin
Inaugural Director
Peter Doherty Institute For Infection & Immunity

Sharon Lewin is the inaugural director of the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, a joint venture between the University of Melbourne and Royal Melbourne Hospital; Professor of Medicine, The University of Melbourne; consultant infectious diseases physician, Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, Australia; and an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Practitioner Fellow. She is an infectious diseases physician and basic scientist.

Sharon completed her medical training (MB., BS (Hons) 1986) and her PhD (1996) in Microbiology at Monash University, Melbourne Australia. She was trained in clinical infectious diseases in Melbourne (FRACP 1996) and did her post-doctoral fellowship with Professor David Ho at the Aaron Diamond Research Centre at the Rockefeller University, New York (1997-1999). David Ho was named Time Man of the Year in 1996 for his major contribution to discovering successful antiviral therapy for HIV. She was Director, Department of Infectious Diseases, Alfred Hospital and Monash University (2003-2014) and co-head of the Centre for Biomedical Research at the Burnet Institute (2011-2014), Melbourne, Australia.

She leads a large multi-disciplinary research team that focuses on understanding why HIV persists on treatment and developing clinical trials aimed at ultimately finding a cure for HIV infection. Her other research and clinical interests include understanding how the immune system recovers following treatment of HIV and the interaction between HIV and other important co-infections including hepatitis B virus. She is widely recognized for her innovative work in understanding how HIV hides on treatment using novel laboratory models and leading several early phase clinical trials of cancer drugs that alter HIV genes. Her clinical trial program is part of a close collaboration with the Department of Infectious Diseases, Alfred Hospital and Monash University.

She has published over 200 publications and her laboratory receives funding from the NHMRC, the National Institutes for Health (NIH), the Wellcome Trust and the American Foundation for AIDS Research. She has extensive collaborations in Asia including Thailand, Malaysia, China and India as well as collaborations with investigators throughout the US and Europe. She is a co-principal investigator for the Delaney AIDS Research Enterprise to find a Cure – a $25million NIH funded program grant of over 30 investigators working on immunological interventions to develop a cure for HIV.

She was the local co-chair of the XXth International AIDS Conference (AIDS2014) which was held in Melbourne July 2015, which attracted over 14,000 participants and was the largest health conference ever held in Australia. In 2015, she became a member of the council of the NHMRC and chairs the newly established NHMRC Health Translation Advisory Committee.

In 2014 she was named Melburnian of the Year. This is an award made each year by the City of Melbourne to an inspirational role model who has made an outstanding contribution to the city in their chosen field. This was the first time the award was made to a physician or scientist.

Sharon is married to Bob Milstein, a health lawyer. They have two adult sons, Alex and Max who are mad Essendon supporters. She is a passionate Melburnian!

Prof Lewin & Peter Wills
Prof Lewin & Peter Wills

Research Australia Events

2016 Research Australia
Health & Medical Research Awards

The 14th annual Research Australia Health and Medical Research Awards honoured some of the country’s top minds and big hearts for their incredible contribution to health and medical research in Australia.

Research Australia is proud to have had such an extraordinary night with incredible researchers who have distinguished themselves in their careers, be it early stage, mid career or through a lifelong commitment to HMR.

It is with great pleasure that we present the 2016 winners of the Research Australia Awards :

2016 AWARD WINNERS

THE PETER WILLS MEDAL

Recognises an Australian who has made an outstanding contribution to building Australia’s international reputation in the area of health and medical research, and fostering collaboration for better health.

Awarded to: Professor Ian Gust AO

ADVOCACY AWARD

Recognises an Australian from the media, a celebrity or member of the community who has raised community awareness about the benefits of health and medical research.

Awarded to: Brenda King, SIDS Stampede

THE GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY DISCOVERY AWARD

Griffith logoRecognises an early researcher (no more than five years post PhD) whose paper/patent/discovery has already demonstrated its importance or impact.

Awarded to: Dr Rebecca Coll

Highly Commended: Dr Felicity Davis and Dr Michael Livingston

GREAT AUSTRALIAN PHILANTHROPY AWARD

To recognise and encourage personal philanthropic donations over a period of time by an individual or family to health and medical research.

Awarded to: The McCusker Charitable Foundation

DATA INNOVATION IN HEALTH AND MEDICAL RESEARCH AWARD

For the development of the most innovative method of gathering, making available, processing or interpreting data in a way that advances the sector.

Awarded to: Capital Markets CRC, Health Market Quality Team

Highly Commended: The National Breast Cancer Foundation and DreamLab (Vodafone and the Garvan Institute of Medical Research)

LEADERSHIP IN CORPORATE GIVING AWARD

Recognises outstanding leadership by a corporation or business giving to and supporting health and medical research through relationships or partnership and commitment over time.

Awarded to: Volvo Car Australia

NSW HEALTH HEALTH SERVICES RESEhealth-nsw-govARCH AWARD

Created in 2014 to recognise the importance of the emerging field of health service research.

Awarded to: Professor Michael Barton OAM

 

GSK AWARD FOR RESEARCH EXCELLENCEGSK_newlogo_april14

With its accompanying grant of $80,000, has played a part in assisting some of Australia’s most important leaders and innovators in the medical research sphere. Its focus is on helping support career development with an emphasis on human health and Australian research.

Awarded to: Professor Prof Arthur Christopolous & Patrick Sexton

 

Previous Research Australia Health & Medical Research Award Winners

Some of the 2016 Award Nominees and their stories