SMILE...about our patrons

Sir Gustav Nossal, AC CBE FAA FRS

Sir Gus Nossal’s research accomplishments are world-renowned. He was knighted in 1977 and made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1989.

As researcher and as Director of The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (1965-96) he helped build the foundations of modern immunology. He has worked to improve global health through his long-term involvement with the World Health Organisation (WHO), most recently as Chairman of the Global Program for Vaccines and Immunisation, as well as his work as Advisor to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Sir Gus has a strong belief in the importance of foundations such as SMILE to bring financial support to Australian medical R&D. He has said, “Australian medical researchers have a proud record and will receive a big boost through increased government funding, but given the urgency of the need, the support of the community as a whole and particularly of the philanthropic sector is most important. This is the case especially for applied and clinical research where so many of Australia’s great discoveries are on the threshold of providing practical benefits by way of new diagnostic techniques, new preventive strategies and new treatments.”

Professor Ian Frazer

Professor Ian Frazer was honoured as Australian of the Year in 2006 for his groundbreaking discovery of the cervical cancer vaccine, now administered to young women across Australia. He is the director of the Diamantina Institute of Cancer Immunology and Metabolic Medicine, is on the board of the Queensland Cancer Fund, and is vice president of the Cancer Council Australia. He advises the WHO on papillomavirus vaccines and has sat on various committees of the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia continuously over the last 15 years.

Trained as a renal physician and clinical immunologist in Edinburgh, Professor Frazer emigrated to Melbourne in 1981 to continue his clinical training and to pursue studies in viral immunology and autoimmunity at the Walter and Eliza Hall institute of Medical Research. In 1985, he moved to Brisbane to take up a teaching post with the University of Queensland, and he now holds a personal chair as head of the Diamantina Institute. This institute employs more than 200 researchers and trains over 30 postgraduate students. Dr Frazer’s current research interests include immunoregulation and immunotherapeutic vaccines, for which he holds research funding from several Australian and US funding bodies.