Fellowship

The Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences elects the best and brightest minds in the field of medical and health sciences as Fellows.

Fellows are elected in recognition of their outstanding achievements and exceptional contributions to the sector. The Fellowship are acknowledged for their clinical, non-clinical, leadership, industry and research contributions.

About Fellowship with AAHMS

Find Fellows of the AAHMS

To find Fellows of our Academy either use the search form below or download the full list of current Fellows here.

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Name

Position

Level

Elected

State

Director
Telethon Kids Institute
Fellow
2014
WA

Professor Jonathan Carapetis is a paediatrician and Infectious Diseases specialist and is Director of the Telethon Kids Institute in Perth, Australia, having previously been Director of the Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin from 2006-2012.

He has particular expertise in rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease; other group A streptococcal diseases; vaccine preventable disease; Indigenous child health; child development and education; youth health and education; and skin sores and scabies.

Professor Carapetis has made an international contribution and commitment to the reduction of rheumatic heart disease in Australia and globally. While rare in most developed countries, Australia has one of the highest rates of the disease in the world due to its prevalence within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, particularly in Northern Australia.

Professor Carapetis was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science from Charles Darwin University in 2013 and named as Northern Territory Australian of the Year for 2008. He has been named as one of Australia’s top 100 brains in Cosmos magazine, and selected in the top ten in Medicine and Health in the Bulletin Magazine’s “Smart 100” list.

Professor Carapetis undertook his medical training at the Royal Melbourne and Royal Children’s Hospitals. Previous positions include terms as Director of the Centre for International Child Health at the University of Melbourne, and Theme Director at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne.

Professor Carapetis holds a clinical position as consultant in paediatric infectious diseases with the Princess Margaret Hospital for Children and is a Winthrop Professor at the University of Western Australia.

Director, Oxidation Biology Unit
The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
Fellow
2015
VIC

Professor Bush is a translational physician-scientist with an outstanding international profile in neurodegenerative disease research, pioneering the importance of metals and oxidation especially as drug targets in Alzheimer’s (AD) and Parkinson’s disease. He is the most highly cited neuroscientist in Australia, is listed in The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds (Thompson Reuters), is a NHMRC Australia Fellow, and has won numerous awards, most recently the Victoria Prize. He leads a large laboratory at the Florey Institute, is Chief Scientist of the CRC for Mental Health, and has founded 4 biotechnology companies.

Professor Emeritus
Nossal Institute for Global Health, The University of Melbourne
Fellow
2015
VIC

Professor Brown is a clinical academic with a distinguished research record in malaria and clinical infectious diseases. His substantial contribution to understanding immunity to malaria in humans includes specific discoveries related to the cellular and genetic mechanisms by which malariainfected red cells cause illness by sticking in blood vessels, or escape immunity by changing molecules at the cell surface. He is recognised for local and international leadership in clinical medicine, research, and global health, and as an exemplary mentor. As a recognised world authority on malaria, he currently chairs the Executive Committee of the global Roll Back Malaria Partnership Board.

Professor of Indigenous Genomics
Telethon Kids Institute and The Australian National University
Fellow
2015
SA

Professor Brown is the Theme Leader Aboriginal Health at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (previously Executive Director of BakerIDI Central Australia, having also established the Central Australian unit of Menzies School of Health Research). He has driven the establishment of CVD as a priority area for Aboriginal health, and his primary research, policy work, consultancies and thought leadership has shaped a national translational agenda, extending to chronic disease more broadly (including chronic kidney disease, diabetes, their interrelationships and the critical role of psychosocial factors in driving and explaining health disparities). He has made significant contributions to national policy and research in Aboriginal health including ministerial councils, committees for peak NGOs, the NHMRC, and NACCHO.

Professor of Medicine, King’s College London; Director, Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London NIHR Biomedical Research Centre
King’s College London
Fellow
2015
International

Professor Brown is a clinician-scientist who has made major contributions to the development of gene-mapping approaches in human diseases. He played a significant role in the development of genomewide association study methodology, leading to the discovery of thousands of genetic variants associated with a wide range of human diseases. More recently he contributed to the development of sequencing approaches to mutation mapping in unrelated cases. He has led international efforts in mapping genes in rheumatic diseases (ankylosing spondylitis, rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma), osteoporosis, neurological diseases (motor neurone disease, epilepsy), and tuberculosis, as well as contributing to efforts in many other diseases.

Bosch Professor of Medicine, and Professor of Immunology
The University of Sydney
Fellow
2015
NSW

Professor Warwick Britton is internationally recognised for his contributions to the immunology and control of tuberculosis and leprosy. His studies have examined how the immune system responds to mycobacteria, the development of novel vaccines against TB and leprosy, genetic susceptibility to infection and identification of TB drug targets. He leads the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Tuberculosis Control that includes studies in Vietnam and China. He is strongly commitment to medical and scientific education, and has led research innovations at the University of Sydney and RPAH. In 2014 he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to medical research as an academic and immunologist, to humanitarian and public health improvements for the people of Nepal and to the community.

AC FRS FAA FAHMS
Director, Epilepsy Research Centre
Austin Health, The University of Melbourne
Fellow
2015
VIC

Professor Sam Berkovic’s early work was in neuroimaging where he was a pioneer in applying new brain imaging methods such as MRI to epilepsy. This rapidly entered routine clinical use and remains so today. Later, he turned to genetics and together with Ingrid Scheffer and molecular genetic collaborators, they discovered the first epilepsy gene in 1995. Subsequently his group have been involved in the discovery of many epilepsy genes. This has changed the conceptualisation of the causes of epilepsy, is having a major impact on epilepsy research, and has directly translated to daily clinical diagnosis and counselling, as well as refining treatment.

Immediate Past Chief Executive Officer
BioCurate Pty, Ltd
Fellow
2015
VIC

Dr Begley’s research contributions include discovery of key factors controlling normal and malignant cells. His demonstration that stem cells, normally resident in bone marrow, can be enriched in blood and hasten patient recovery has revolutionized transplantation approaches. At Amgen over 25 of his research programs entered clinical trials. His work has impacted the lives of millions of cancer patients and has been recognized by election as Fellow, Royal Colleges of Pathologists UK (1997) and Australasia (2002); American Society of Clinical Investigation (2002); Association of American Physicians (2008); and inaugural inductee into the Royal Melbourne Hospital’s Research “Hall of Fame” (2014).

Professor and Head of Child and Adolescent Health, University of Sydney
The Children’s Hospital at Westmead Clinical School, The University of Sydney
Fellow
2014
NSW

Professor Louise Baur graduated in medicine from The University of Sydney in 1981 and subsequently trained in general paediatrics in Sydney and London. She was awarded a PhD in the area of paediatric nutrition from The University of Sydney in 1993. Louise is Professor of Child & Adolescent Health at The University of Sydney, and Associate Dean of The Children’s Hospital at Westmead Clinical School. She is a consultant paediatrician and Head of Weight Management Services at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead in Sydney, where she runs multidisciplinary clinical services for obese and pre-diabetic children and adolescents. Louise is also a member of the Prevention Research Collaboration based at the University of Sydney. The latter group undertakes a range of policy-relevant research in the areas of obesity, nutrition and physical activity.

Professor Baur’s research interests include the prevention of childhood obesity, the antecedents of obesity and the metabolic syndrome in childhood, the complications of paediatric obesity and the effective management of obesity and related disorders in a variety of clinical settings.

Professor Baur is on the Editorial Board of Pediatric Obesity (and was its Founding Editor-in-Chief from 2005-2010), is Founding Director of the Australasian Child & Adolescent Obesity Research Network and is a member of the NHMRC’s Prevention & Community Health Committee. She has a range of roles with the World Obesity Federation and is currently a member of the World Health Organization’s Working Group on the Science and Evidence for Ending Childhood Obesity. Louise is also a Director of World Vision Australia.

In 2010, Professor Baur was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) “for service to medicine, particularly in the field of paediatric obesity as a researcher and academic, and to the community through support for a range of children’s charities”.

Professor of Public Health
The University of Sydney
Fellow
2015
NSW

Professor Adrian Bauman is an internationally recognised public health physician, researcher and teacher, with a special interest in physical activity and health research, practice and policy. He has a large research program around prevention, and is ranked among the leading public health researchers in the world. His research has made major contributions to prevention science, especially to understanding the many health benefits of increasing physical activity and reducing sitting time. He has had many leadership positions, and translates research into community-relevant findings that have influenced our understanding of prevention and physical activity, and made a difference to health of all Australians.

Our Fellows sit at the heart of everything we do. They represent Australia’s leading minds in health and medical sciences, having been recognised for their clinical, non-clinical, leadership, industry and research contributions.

To be considered for election to the Academy’s Fellowship, a candidate must show exceptional professional achievement in a field related to health and/or medicine.

Fellows contribute to the projects and activities of the Academy and must be willing to be active participants.

Successful Fellowship candidates will have shown:

  • Outstanding leadership in their field.
  • Significant and ongoing involvement with issues of health care, prevention of disease, education, research, and health services policy and delivery.

Candidates for Fellowship should meet the following criteria:

  • National and International recognition for excellence in health and medical science
  • Significant, sustained and ongoing contributions to advance health and medical science in Australia (relative to opportunity)
  • Contribution to the profession through leadership and mentorship
  • Raised public understanding and promoting health and medical science in the broader community



Download criteria for Fellowship

Each year, current Fellows of the Academy are invited to nominate up to four new candidates who meet the criteria and fulfil the required expectations.

Nominations by a Fellow of two new candidates must ensure that at least one nomination is a woman. Nominations by a Fellow of four new candidates must ensure that at least two nominations are women.

How to make a nomination

Fellows wishing to nominate a candidate for Fellowship should contact the secretariat to confirm candidate eligibility and receive and instructions on how to submit the completed nomination documentation online. 

Fellows wishing to nominate a candidate for a Corresponding Fellowship should contact the secretariat for more information.

Secretariat contact details
Email: [email protected]

Phone: 07 3102 7220

Nomination guidelines for ordinary Fellowship

October 2022
Newly elected Fellows of 2022 are inducted at the Annual Meeting.

Late September 2022-November 2022
Nominations are invited from existing Fellows until the closing date of 30 November.

December 2022
Nominations allocated to Selection Committees.

January – April 2023
Referees’ reports sought.

Early May 2023
Selection Committees meet to consider nominations and provide final recommendations to the Council.

Early-to-mid-July 2023
Council meets to finalise recommendations.

Late July 2023
Full Fellowship invited to comment on recommended new fellows.

August 2023
Election results are shared with proposers and candidates (under embargo).

October 2023
Newly elected Fellows of 2023 inducted at the Annual Meeting.

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