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                    2020 Melburnian of the Year

                    Professor Douglas Hilton AO FAA FTSE FAHMS

                    Professor Douglas Hilton
                    Douglas Hilton is the sixth director of Melbourne medical research institute WEHI, the Lorenzo and Pamela Galli Chair in Medical Biology and head of the Department of Medical Biology in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne.

                    ​He grew up in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne attending Warrandyte Primary School, East Doncaster High School and then Monash University and and the University of Melbourne. Other than two years working at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, US, he has been a researcher at WEHI for the past 35 years and director since 2009.

                    Doug champions fundamental science and its transformative impact on our lives. As a medical researcher, he and his team focus on how blood cells are produced, how they function, and how these cells ‘talk’ to each other. 

                    Doug is an inventor on more than 20 patent families, most licensed, and has led major collaborations with industry to translate his discoveries into better treatments for diseases like asthma. His research is also being developed to find medicines that help the body to better fight cancer.

                    Doug is a passionate advocate for health and medical research, diversity and inclusion, and gender equality in science. He is a past president of the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes (AAMRI), serves on the Research Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council and on the Australian Government Medical Research Advisory Board. His achievements and contributions to medical research have been recognised by awards including appointment as an Officer of the Order of Australia, and as a Fellow of the Australian Academies of Science; of Technological Sciences and Engineering; and of Health and Medical Sciences. 

                    In his spare time Doug likes to run and swim, catch up with his two sons and, because he can’t switch off the science part of his brain, is part of a passionate team of amateur entomologists who study tiny sun-loving moths. 

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