Dr Peter C. Doherty, AC, FAA, FRS

Dr. Peter Doherty is an Australian-born immunologist who has worked for 17 years in the United States. Since 1988 he has been Chairman of the Department of Immunology at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, and a Professor in the University of Tennessee Medical School. He and his long term Swiss colleague, Rolf Zinkernagel, won the 1996 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their work on immunity to viruses. This was preceded by the 1995 Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research. He was the 1997 Australian of the Year.

He has been on a member of numerous review committees, scientific advisory boards in Australia, Britain and the USA, and has also given long-term service to the International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases, Nairobi, Kenya. Having spent some time in Africa and South East Asia, he is very committed to the idea that controlling the major infectious diseases (such as AIDS and malaria) by vaccination would contribute enormously to sustainable development, social stability and world peace.

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