Professor Ian Frazer

Ian Frazer is director of the Diamantina Institute of Cancer Immunology and Metabolic Medicine, a research institute of the University of Queensland at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane. He was trained as a renal physician and clinical immunologist in Edinburgh, Scotland before emigrating in 1981 to Melbourne, Australia to continue his clinical training and to pursue studies in viral immunology and autoimmunity at the Walter and Eliza Hall institute of Medical Research with Prof Ian Mackay. 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 over 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. Dr Frazer teaches immunology to undergraduate and graduate students of the University. He is president of the Cancer Council Australia. He has sat on various committees of the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia continuously over the last 15 years. He advises the WHO on papillomavirus vaccines. He was chosen as the 2006 Queenslander of the Year and the 2006 Australian of the Year.