Word for Word

28 Nov 2015

The Doherty Institute – Laureate Prof. Peter Doherty and Prof. Sharon Lewin

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The Doherty Institute – Laureate Prof. Peter Doherty and Prof. Sharon Lewin

On Word For Word today we put the spotlight on two of Australia’s greatest Scientists and focus on the work conducted at the Doherty Institute which will be hosting the World AIDS Day 2015 activities and events in Melbourne on December 1.

University of Melbourne Laureate Professor Peter Doherty has been involved in research on infection and immunity for 50 years.

He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1996 and remains the first person with a veterinary qualification to win a Nobel Prize.

In 1997 he was named Australian of the Year and has been called a National Living Treasure.

Still active in science and involved in large, grant-funded programs at both institutions, he commutes between St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis and the Doherty Institute (named after him) where he now spends most of his time. His current focus is increasingly on the public communication of science and on defending an evidence-based view of the world.

Professor Sharon Lewin is the inaugural Director of the Doherty Institute. 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 and understanding how HIV interacts with other common co-infections, including hepatitis B virus (HBV).

Sharon was previously Head, Department of Infectious Diseases, the Alfred Hospital and Monash University (2003 – 2014) and Co-head, Centre for Biomedical Research, Burnet Institute (2010-2014).

Sharon was the local co-chair of the XX International AIDS Conference (AIDS2014) held in Melbourne in July 2014, which was the largest health and development conference ever hosted in Australia.

In 2014, she was named Melburnian of the Year – an annual award from the City of Melbourne to an inspirational role model who has made an outstanding contribution to the city in their chosen field.