Professor Petrou is a neuroscientist focussed on understanding disease mechanisms in genetic epilepsy. He has made seminal contributions to our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the pathology of genetic epilepsy. His pioneering disease models have identified the pathological changes that precede epilepsy, showing that early treatment is critical for controlling seizures and the attendant quality of life destroying comorbidities. His recent work is the first to show that disease mechanism based therapies can be effective treatments in epilepsy paving the way for future precision therapeutics benefiting millions of patients and their families

Professor Parker’s international reputation in protein crystallography reflects his astonishing output of more than 100 important protein structures. His pioneering studies of membrane-associated proteins are particularly significant, since such proteins are among the most challenging targets for protein crystallography and also important drug targets. The impact of his work has been amplified greatly through the ways he has used biological understanding and drug discovery to complement the structural information he has provided to collaborators. He has received several prestigious awards including the Ramaciotti Medal for Biomedical Research (2011) and was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (2010).

Professor Terry Nolan AO is an eminent public health researcher of international standing. His research has been principally in immunisation and clinical trials of new vaccines. He has over 220 publications including 205 in refereed journals and over $40m in grant funding. His research has made pivotal contributions enabling licensure of several vaccines now used worldwide, including HPV vaccine, penta and hexavalent combination paediatric vaccines, meningococcal vaccines (B, ACWY combinations), pandemic inactivated influenza vaccines (H1 and H5), live influenza vaccine, varicella and MMRV vaccines. He is a leader in research policy in Australia, and in the measurement of research impact.

Prof Nick Nicola has made profound and enduring discoveries in the field of the molecular regulation of white blood cells. His early work showed that there were four different hormone-like regulators (colony-stimulating factors, CSFs) of white blood cell production and function, and he led the purification of granulocyte CSF (G-CSF), a protein that is now in routine clinical use to treat more than 20 million cancer patients. His team also cloned three cellular receptors that mediated the actions of the regulators and discovered an important new family of signalling molecules that negatively regulate the actions of CSFs and other regulators.

Prof McDermott has devised, developed, and evaluated numerous commercially successful innovations particularly for cochlear implants and hearing aids. Millions of adults and children with hearing impairment around the world benefit directly from his research through improved sound perception. These and other inventions are disclosed in a number of patents and patent applications. In recognition of this work, Prof McDermott in 2009 was the first winner of the Callier Prize in Communication Disorders, a biennial award from the University of Texas, USA. He is an author of over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, and about 200 further publications.