Michael Philip Alpers is an Australian medical researcher, and John Curtin distinguished Professor of International Health, at Curtin University. [1] [2]
Alpers graduated from University of Adelaide with a B.Sc. and M.B.B.S. and from University of Cambridge with an M.A.
After graduating, he commenced a career, ultimately resulting in investigating kuru, a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy. [3] [4] [5]
He is Honorary Senior Research Associate University College London. [6]
Alpers and his work are the main theme of Kuru: The Science and the Sorcery (2010).[ citation needed ] He is interviewed in The Genius And The Boys (2009).[ citation needed ]
Daniel Carleton Gajdusek was an American physician and medical researcher who was the co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1976 for work on the transmissibility of kuru, implying the existence of an infectious agent, which he named an 'unconventional virus'. In 1996, Gajdusek was charged with child molestation and, after being convicted, spent 12 months in prison before entering a self-imposed exile in Europe, where he died a decade later.
Fellowship of the Royal Society is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematics, engineering science, and medical science".
The indigenous peoples of Western New Guinea in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, commonly called Papuans, are Melanesians. There is genetic evidence for two major historical lineages in New Guinea and neighboring islands: a first wave from the Malay Archipelago perhaps 50,000 years ago when New Guinea and Australia were a single landmass called Sahul and, much later, a wave of Austronesian people from the north who introduced Austronesian languages and pigs about 3,500 years ago. They also left a small but significant genetic trace in many coastal Papuan peoples.
Frank John Fenner was an Australian scientist with a distinguished career in the field of virology. His two greatest achievements are cited as overseeing the eradication of smallpox, and the attempted control of Australia's rabbit plague through the introduction of Myxoma virus.
The Fore people live in the Okapa District of the Eastern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea. There are approximately 20,000 Fore who are separated by the Wanevinti Mountains into the North Fore and South Fore regions. Their main form of subsistence is slash-and-burn farming. The Fore language has three distinct dialects and is the southernmost member of the East Central Family, East New Guinea Highlands Stock, Trans–New Guinea phylum of Papuan languages.
The Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research (PNG IMR) is the principal institution conducting health research in Papua New Guinea with a focus on health problems affecting the country's population.
Stephen Adolphe Wurm was a Hungarian-born Australian linguist.
Amyand David Buckingham born in Pymble, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia was a chemist, with primary expertise in chemical physics.
Curtin University Malaysia is the Malaysian campus of Curtin University, a public university based in Australia. It is the university's largest campus outside of Australia with a total area of 1,200-hectare (3,000-acre) comprising academic and residential blocks. It offers undergraduate and postgraduate programs in various fields of commerce, engineering, computational sciences, humanities and health sciences. It also offers foundational courses and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) among other higher degree by research programs. It is named after John Curtin, a prominent Prime Minister of Australia during World War II from 1941 to 1945.
Variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD), formerly known as New variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (nvCJD) and referred to colloquially as "mad cow disease" or "human mad cow disease" to distinguish it from its BSE counterpart, is a fatal type of brain disease within the transmissible spongiform encephalopathy family. Initial symptoms include psychiatric problems, behavioral changes, and painful sensations. In the later stages of the illness, patients may exhibit poor coordination, dementia and involuntary movements. The length of time between exposure and the development of symptoms is unclear, but is believed to be years to decades. Average life expectancy following the onset of symptoms is 13 months.
Endocannibalism is a practice of cannibalism in one's own locality or community. In most cases this refers to the consumption of the remains of the deceased in a mortuary context.
Kuru is a rare, incurable, and fatal neurodegenerative disorder that was formerly common among the Fore people of Papua New Guinea. Kuru is a form of prion disease which leads to tremors and loss of coordination from neurodegeneration.
The Australian College of Educators (ACE) is an Australian national professional association for educators. Membership is open to all professional educators working in the early childhood, school, and tertiary education sectors, as well as to education researchers and managers. The college advocates for its members in seeking improvements in the status of the education profession.
Brendan Scott CrabbFASM is an Australian microbiologist, research scientist and director and chief executive officer of the Burnet Institute, based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Kliti Grice, is a chemist and geochemist known for her work in identifying geological and environmental causes for mass extinction events. Her research integrates geological information with data on molecular fossils and their stable carbon, hydrogen and sulfur isotopic compositions to reconstruct details of microbial, fungal and floral inhabitants of modern and ancient aquatic environments and biodiversity hot spots. This information expands our understanding of both the Earth's history and its current physical state, with implications ranging from energy and mineral resource exploration strategies to environmental sustainability encompassing climate dynamics and expected rates, durations and scale of our future planet's health. As one of the youngest women professors in Earth Sciences, she is the founding director of the Western Australian Organic and Isotope Geochemistry Centre (WA-OIGC) and is a Professor of Organic and Isotope Geochemistry at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia.
Sir Andrew John Pollard is the Ashall Professor of Infection & Immunity at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford. He is an Honorary Consultant Paediatrician at John Radcliffe Hospital and the Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group. He is the Chief Investigator on the University of Oxford COVID-19 Vaccine trials and has led research on vaccines for many life-threatening infectious diseases including typhoid fever, Neisseria meningitidis, Haemophilus influenzae type b, streptococcus pneumoniae, pertussis, influenza, rabies, and Ebola.
Susan Wyber Serjeantson is an Australian geneticist and professor of genetics at the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the Australian National University.
Jeffrey Victor Rosenfeld is an Australian neurosurgeon and professor of medicine. He is a senior neurosurgeon in the Department of Neurosurgery at The Alfred Hospital, and the Emeritus Professor of Surgery at Monash University, as well as being a major general in the Australian Defence Force, where he has served as a general surgeon since 1984. His research has focussed on traumatic brain injury, bionic vision, and medical engineering. He is best known for devising an operation to remove hypothalamic haematomas from children's brains. Since 2021 he has been the Patron of the Australian Friends of Sheba Medical Centre organization.
Ada Sophia Rundell, was an Australian physiotherapist who before the First World War promoted the use of physiotherapy by the military, and who subsequently served with the Australian Imperial Force in France and England during the conflict.
Colin William Binns is an Australian public health specialist. He is the John Curtin Distinguished Emeritus Professor at Curtin University and founder of the Curtin Health Service.