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.

Name

Position

Level

Elected

State

Director
National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS)
2022
NSW

Professor Kristine Macartney is a vaccinologist, infectious diseases paediatrician and Director of the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS). She is an expert on vaccine safety, policy and implementation, and vaccine preventable viral diseases, including influenza, SARS-CoV-2 (cause of COVID-19), rotavirus and varicella-zoster. Professor Macartney is a member of WHO advisory groups, including the Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety and COVID-19 in Education and serves all key vaccine/communicable disease Australian advisory committees. Alongside over 200 publications, she is also Senior Editor of the Australian Immunisation Handbook.

Professor Macartney leads networked expert assistance on routine and COVID-19 vaccine delivery to multiple Indo-Pacific countries.

FASSA FAHMS
Professor of Anthropology
Deakin University
2022
VIC

Professor Emma Kowal is a leading expert in the social, ethical and cultural implications of genomics in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. As a result of her research, Indigenous genomics has developed as a recognised area of importance both within Indigenous health and within precision medicine.

Professor Kowal’s work developing national frameworks for biospecimen handling and a training program for Indigenous people in genomics has been recognised internationally. Her contributions, particularly through the National Centre for Indigenous Genomics, the Genomics Health Futures Mission and Genomics Australia will allow Indigenous Australians to access the benefits of genomics and precision medicine.

Professor of Disability and Health
The University of Melbourne
2022
VIC

Professor Anne Kavanagh is an epidemiologist and public health physician who has made substantial contributions to knowledge across three areas: cancer screening, health inequities and disability. Her research has had major impacts on policy, including in relation to mammographic screening, local government priorities to promote healthy behaviour and approaches to improving the health of people with disability through reducing disability-related discrimination and violence, as well as improving employment outcomes for people with disability and ensuring people with disability have been safe during COVID-19.

In addition to her over 300 publications, Professor Kavanagh writes for online media and is a regular commentator in mainstream media.

Head of the Division of Clinical Trials and Cohort Studies; Deputy Director, ANZIC-RC
Monash University
2022
VIC

Professor Carol Hodgson has an exceptional track record and leads a multidisciplinary, international research program in functional recovery after critical illness. This program has changed clinical practice and contributed new knowledge in the field, including international guidelines. Professor Hodgson is ranked in the top 1% worldwide for her expertise in topics such as ‘Critical Care’, ‘ECMO’ and ‘Clinical Trials’, and has been ranked number one globally for ‘Early Ambulation’ (https://expertscape.com/).

At Monash University, Professor Hodgson leads the Division of Clinical Trials, the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in ICUs, the National NHMRC-funded ECMO Registry and multiple international clinical trials. She is also an ICU Specialist Physiotherapist at The Alfred Hospital.

Head, Sexual Health Unit
The University of Melbourne
2022
VIC

Professor Jane Hocking is an epidemiologist, whose research on chlamydia has led to paradigm changes in policy, with changed treatment guidelines globally. She has demonstrated excellence through multiple plenary and symposia presentations at international conferences and membership on national and international committees informing policy. She has published over 375 peer-reviewed papers, with publications on NEJM and The Lancet, and has attracted $57 million in funding.

Professor Hocking has made sustained contributions to the profession through journal editorial roles, conference organising and peer-review, and received prestigious awards for research excellence. She has promoted health and medical science in the community and enhanced primary-care workforce capacity through education, training and resources.

Head of Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Senior Staff Specialist in Aged Care
Royal North Shore Hospital
2022
NSW

Professor Sarah Hilmer is nationally and internationally recognised for excellence in geriatric pharmacology. She has made significant, sustained contributions to the field since her PhD was awarded in 2005, with over 300 publications and 10,000 citations, and national and international collaborations. She has chaired institutional, state and international committees aiming to advance clinical pharmacology and therapeutics, particularly for older adults. She performs editorial responsibilities for gerontology and clinical pharmacology journals.

Professor Hilmer has built capacity in the emerging field of geriatric pharmacology through supervision of multidisciplinary higher degree students and mentorship of national and international early career clinician scientists. She actively engages with clinicians, policy makers and consumers to promote geriatric pharmacology research and practice.

Professor of Health Equity
Australian National University
2022
ACT

Professor Sharon Friel is a world–renowned policy-focused health equity researcher. She is an ARC Laureate Fellow since 2021 and Director of Menzies Centre for Health Governance, Australian National University. Professor Friel was Head of the Scientific Secretariat (University College London) for the World Health Organisation Commission on Social Determinants of Health. She has published widely on the social and environmental determinants of health equity, with more than 200 scholarly outputs and an h-index of 64 (Google Scholar).

In 2014, Professor Friel was voted into the top 100 female global health leaders and in 2015 she was elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences Australia.

Senior Staff Specialist in Medical Oncology
Prince of Wales Hospital
2022
NSW

Professor Michael Friedlander has an extensive track record of research into gynaecological and breast malignancies, with major focus on innovative clinical trials in ovarian cancer and using patient reported outcomes as endpoints in clinical trials. His extensively cited and influential work has led to important, lasting changes in clinical cancer treatment and improved patient outcomes.

Professor Friedlander is recognised both nationally and internationally and has a long-term track record of effective leadership, training and mentorship in the discipline.

AO KC FASSA FAHMS
Professor of Law
The University of Melbourne
2022
VIC

Professor Ian Freckelton, King’s Counsel, has made extensive contributions to health law and policy through his roles as an academic, researcher and teacher and through his involvement in national committees. His extraordinary contributions to heath law have been both considerable and influential, particularly as the founder of the Journal of Law and Medicine, which attracts international recognition, citations and submissions.

Professor Freckelton has made further outstanding contributions through collaborative publishing, particularly through his series of edited books, including ‘Controversies in Health Law Disputes and Dilemmas in Health Law’ and ‘Tensions and Traumas in Health Law’.

Professor and NHMRC Senior Research Fellow; Deputy Director, ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology (COESB)
The University of Western Australia
2022
WA

Professor Aleksandra Filipovska is internationally renowned for her pioneering work in mitochondrial genomics and disease. She is Deputy Director of the ARC Centre for Synthetic Biology and NHMRC Senior Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia. As co-director at the Mito Foundation, Professor Filipovska plays a key role in advocating for the mitochondrial disease community and mitochondrial donation.

Professor Filipovska has developed new technologies that have re-defined the mitochondrial transcriptome, its regulation, and diagnosis of patients with mitochondrial and metabolic diseases. She has licensed her genome-editing technology, which is currently used for clinical trials of neurodegenerative diseases internationally.

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

18 September 2023- 30 November 2023
Nominations are invited from existing Fellows until the closing date of 30 November.

December 2023
Nominations allocated to Selection Committees.

January – April 2024
Referees’ reports sought.

Early May 2024
Selection Committees meet to consider nominations and provide final recommendations to the Council.

Early-to-mid-July 2024
Council meets to finalise recommendations.

Late July 2024
Full Fellowship invited to comment on recommended new fellows.

August 2024
Election results are shared with proposers and candidates (under embargo).

October 2024
Newly elected Fellows of 2024 inducted at the Annual Meeting.

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