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                    2014 Melburnian of the Year

                    Professor Sharon Lewin AO

                    Professor Sharon Lewin
                    The 2014 Melburnian of the Year was awarded to Professor Sharon Lewin, an infectious diseases physician and researcher into HIV/AIDS and other diseases. She is internationally renowned as one of the leading scientists aiming to find a cure for HIV.

                    Professor Lewin is the inaugural Director, Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity at the University of Melbourne and The Royal Melbourne Hospital. Prior to this, she was Head of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Alfred Health and Monash University; and Co-Head of the Centre for Biomedical Research, Burnet Institute in Melbourne.

                    Professor Lewin was the Local Co-Chair for the AIDS 2014 Conferen​ce held in Melbourne in July 2014 – the largest health and development event ever held in Australia. The highly anticipated event put Melbourne firmly in the international spotlight. Many of the attendees at AIDS 2014 were there entirely due to Sharon's appointment as Co-Chair and her unrelenting drive to educate and advocate on behalf of the HIV/AIDS community.

                    Professor Lewin is frequently asked to speak internationally and she is passionate about both her work and also Melbourne more broadly.  At the conference, Sharon was hailed by the International AIDS Society as one of the most influential campaigners and researchers in the world – not an appellation that comes lightly.

                    She is an extraordinary advocate for the HIV community and the research community and is always ready to promote medical research in Melbourne.

                    She is an elected member of the Governing Council of the International AIDS Society (IAS) representing the Asia Pacific region and co-chairs the IAS Global Advisory board for the Towards an HIV Cure initiative. She has been a member of the council of the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia since 2016. In 2015 she was awarded the Peter Wills Medal from Research Australia. 

                    Professor Lewin was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2019 for distinguished service to medical research, and to education, in the field of infectious diseases, particularly HIV/AIDS.

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                    2014 Melbourne Awards – Melburnian of the Year – Professor Sharon Lewin
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