Scientia Professor Rebecca Ivers, Professor Stuart Tangye and Professor Gail Matthews Twenty-seven leading medical and health researchers from UNSW Medicine and Health have been elected Fellows of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (AAHMS).
The news was announced at a ceremony at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane on 12 October.
Professor Adrienne Torda, Acting Dean of the UNSW School of Medicine and Health, congratulated the three UNSW academics.
“I am very proud of Professors Rebecca Ivers, Stuart Tangye and Gail Matthews for their work on HIV, viral hepatitis and COVID- 19 have been recognized by their peers for their research on injury burden, immunology and therapeutic interventions. Their dedication and expertise play a vital role in healthcare and improving the overall quality of life in our communities,” Professor Toda explain.
AAHMS Fellows represent the top minds in Australia’s health and medical sciences and are recognized for their clinical, non-clinical, leadership, industry and research contributions.
Scientific Association Professor Rebecca Evers (AM)
Professor Evers is Dean of the UNSW School of Population Health and is recognized for his expertise in injury research, trauma care and falls prevention.
Professor Evers said: “Injuries cause a huge burden of disability and death globally, with large equity gaps remaining for people from marginalized and low-income groups who are most affected locally and globally.”
“Despite this, it remains an area that has been underinvested in research and policy. “I hope my election to the Academy will help bring attention to this area, highlighting the need for locally designed, co-designed solutions in the areas most affected plan. “
Professor Evers’ research focuses on reducing inequalities in road injuries, drownings, burns and falls, working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and clinicians in resource-poor settings. She works closely with the World Health Organization (WHO), for which she recently co-authored Step Safely, a key technical package for preventing falls.
“I am privileged to work with a range of community and policy partners to understand their priorities and co-design and implement solutions to reduce harm and ensure culturally safe care,” Professor Evers said.
Professor Gail Matthews, Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales, Sydney
Professor Matthews, from the Kirby Institute at UNSW Sydney, has been recognized for his work on therapeutic interventions for HIV, viral hepatitis and COVID-19.
“I am proud to have been elected a Fellow of the AAHMS. The Academy is an important voice in ensuring Australians’ most important health and medical science issues are addressed, and I look forward to joining this prestigious group to continue advancing progress on equitable access to life-saving treatments. research, particularly for marginalized and low-income risk groups,” Professor Matthews said.
Professor Matthews is an infectious disease clinician whose research includes acute hepatitis C infection, HIV and viral hepatitis (including hepatitis B), acute COVID-19 treatment and long-term sequelae of COVID-19, and infections in people who inject drugs .
She is director of the Kirby Institute’s Therapeutics and Vaccine Research Program and has led a number of important global collaborations, including the recently completed international D2She announced the results of the EFT trial for second-line HIV treatment earlier this year. She was recently appointed Chair of STRIVE, a major global “network of networks” specializing in clinical trials currently focused on pandemic preparedness.
Professor Matthews is also leading the ADAPT cohort study, which is tracking the progress of long-term COVID-19 patients at Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital and is groundbreaking in identifying the immunological signature of long-term COVID-19.
Professor Stuart Tangye, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, University of New South Wales, Sydney
Professor Tangye of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and Joint Professor in the UNSW School of Clinical Medicine has been recognized for his leading contributions to the field of immunology and genetic diagnosis of congenital immune deficiencies.
Professor Tangye’s research focuses on human immunology and how genetically induced immune deficiencies (also known as inborn errors of immunity) lead to disease, for which he has published more than 250 peer-reviewed research articles and invited reviews.
His contributions were critical in identifying genetic variations in patients with rare immune diseases and led to the discovery of 22 new innate immune errors, reported in prestigious scientific journals.
One of his outstanding achievements is the establishment of the Clinical Immunogenomics Research Consortium of Australia (CIRCA) in 2015. This multidisciplinary collaborative network aims to accelerate genomic diagnosis and treatment of individuals with congenital immune deficiencies and enable new research projects to reveal how these diseases develop. Genetic variations cause disease in individuals with these diseases.
“I am delighted that my team’s work has received such recognition. Patients with congenital immune deficiencies are often left behind. Through work that started in my lab many years ago and is now embedded in the CIRCA network, we have been able to Help genetic diagnosis of immune diseases, guide treatment and change the lives of patients affected by these diseases. I am very grateful to the Academy of Sciences for recognizing this important work.” said Professor Tangye.
Read the full list of fellows.