Our Director

Professor Frank Gannon joined QIMR Berghofer from the Science Foundation Ireland, where he was the Director-General. Prior to that, he was the Executive Director of the European Molecular Biology Organization in Germany. His research focused on the regulation of gene expression by the oestrogen receptor, which plays a major role in breast and endometrial cancers. During his time as Director, he was credited with sealing major deals with international pharmaceutical companies Bristol-Myers Squibb and Atara Biotherapeutics; attracting genomics giant BGI to Brisbane; and boosting philanthropic support of the life sciences.

Professor Gannon's contributions to the scientific community have been recognised through his election as a Fellow of the Royal Irish Academy, the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Research, Academia Europaea, the European Academy of Cancer Sciences, the Mexican Academy of Medicine, and the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is currently serving as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Mater Medical Research Institute, Precision Oncology Ireland, the Beaumont RCSI Cancer Centre in Dublin, Ireland, and The Cancer Clinician Academic Network in Galway, Ireland.

In 1970, Professor Gannon earned a Bachelor of Science from the National University of Ireland in Galway, followed by a PhD from the University of Leicester, England in 1973. Later, he was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Madison Wisconsin in the USA and Chargé de Recherche in INSERM at the University of Strasbourg, France from 1975 to 1981, after which he returned to Galway, Ireland, where he was born and raised.

Best known for his work on malaria vaccines and group A streptococcus/rheumatic fever, Professor Michael Good AO obtained a double degree in medicine and medical science from the University of Queensland. He was encouraged to pursue medical research by former Director Professor Chev Kidson who supervised Michael's medical science year at university. After completing a doctorate at Melbourne’s Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, he spent almost four years at the US National Institutes of Health, a career decision that sparked his interest in malaria vaccines.

Professor Good is a past chairman of the National Health and Medical Research Council and a former President of the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes. In 2008, he was awarded an Order of Australia for his services to medical research; in 2009 he received the Eureka Prize for Leadership; and in 2010, he was named a Queensland Great. He was also elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 2010 and of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences in 2015. Professor Good now heads the Laboratory of Vaccines for the Developing World, Institute for Glycomics at Griffith University.

Professor Lawrie Powell AC was an internationally recognised medical researcher, appointed director after an esteemed career in iron storage disorders, particularly the inherited disease haemochromatosis. He was instrumental in the development of the Clive Berghofer Cancer Research Centre. Professor Powell graduated from Brisbane State High School in 1952, trained at the then Royal Brisbane Hospital, and successfully passed the examinations for the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. His research career took him to London, North America and Copenhagen before landing back in Australia where he secured an appointment as senior lecturer in the Department of Medicine at the University of Queensland.

Professor Powell was the only Australian researcher awarded the Distinguished Achievement Award from the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, in honour of his sustained scientific contributions to the field of liver disease and the scientific foundations of hepatology.

QIMR Berghofer Deputy Director Professor Grant Ramm worked with Professor Powell for 40 years, and his daughter, hepatologist Professor Elizabeth Powell, is the Institute’s Clinical Director.

Professor Chev Kidson was a doctor, molecular biologist and medical researcher. He completed his studies at the University of Sydney and was The University of Queensland’s first Professor of Medical Biochemistry. As director of QIMR Berghofer, he was credited with elevating Queensland’s medical research reputation internationally and oversaw a more than doubling of staff numbers during the 1980s. He was passionate about incorporating global challenges, particularly those of neighbouring developing nations, into the Institute’s work. By the mid-1980s, QIMR Berghofer was recognised as the Australian leader in medical entomology and outbreak response.

After QIMR Berghofer, Professor Kidson worked as a professor in tropical medicine at Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand. In 2003, he was awarded a Doctor of Science honoris causa by UQ in recognition of his contribution to the development of science in Queensland and internationally.

Medical researcher Professor Ralph Doherty AO joined the Institute after completing his medical studies and internship at the University of Queensland a Master of Public Health (Microbiology) from Harvard School of Public Health. He reinvigorated the Institute’s mission to investigate North Queensland fevers, working out of the QIMR field station in Innisfail and later at Mitchell River Mission/Kowanyama. He is credited with the discovery of Ross River virus, found in Aedes vigilax mosquitoes, the main cause of epidemic polyarthritis presenting as painfully swollen joints and muscles, extreme tiredness, fever, and a raised red rash.

After serving as QIMR Director, he became Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at UQ, eventually becoming Pro-Vice Chancellor. In this role, he chaired an Australian Government inquiry into the education of medical students in Australia (1987-1988). In 1989, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia.

QIMR Berghofer, established in 1945 as the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR), was the brainchild of Dr Edward Derrick, an early Director of the Queensland State Health Department Laboratory of Microbiology and Pathology. Chairman of a Cabinet-appointed Medical Research Advisory Committee which drafted the Bill for the establishment of QIMR, Dr Derrick was appointed the first Deputy Director of the Institute after the Queensland Institute of Medical Research Act 1945 was passed by the Queensland Parliament.

His work on Q fever, scrub typhus and leptospirosis made him aware of the need for an institute devoted to the full-time research of infectious diseases of northern Australia.

From 1935, his pioneering research into Q fever, also known as abbatoir fever, led to the discovery of the tick-borne bacteria which caused the illness, Coxiella burnetii.

He also investigated causes of asthma among young children in Brisbane, with special interest in how climate affected the illness.

The first Director of the then Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Dr Ian Mackerras was an entomologist who was responsible for much of the work done to protect Australian troops from malaria during World War II. Prior to his appointment, he also served during World War I and at the organisation now known as CSIRO, investigating the cause and treatment of parasitic infection in cattle and sheep.

He established the Institute’s reputation as a leader in the understanding of the typhus group of organisms, including Q Fever, murine typhus, scrub typhus and tick typhus and mosquito-borne diseases Australian arbo-encephalitis and dengue fever.

During his 14 years as director, he researched the taxonomy of the blood-sucking flies, Simuliidae and Tabanidae and became chairman of the Great Barrier Reef Committee, which sponsored research on the reef. He helped raise funds to erect a research station on Heron Island and during regular visits to the reef, researched marine insects.

He graduated from the University of Sydney, where he met his wife, Mabel Josephine Bancroft, with a medical and a zoology degree.