Doherty Lecture: The Peter Doherty Nobel Lecture Series - In-Person event

About the event

Nobel Award-winning scientist and UQ alum, Laureate Professor Peter Doherty AO FRS FMedSci, will return to UQ to deliver the inaugural lecture of The Peter Doherty Nobel Lecture Series.

We invite you to join Laureate Professor Peter Doherty for an inspiring lecture reflecting on how his Nobel Prize changed our understanding of the immune system and the trajectory of his career, leading to tireless efforts to improve health in developing nations through vaccination, and to promote scientific literacy and engagement through books and trusted commentary, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This series has been established to celebrate the significant contributions made by Nobel Laureates in Australia and internationally, named in honour of UQ’s first – and so far, only – graduate to win a Nobel Prize.

Every other year, a Nobel Prize winner from Physics, Chemistry, Physiology/Medicine, Peace, Literature, or Economics will be featured.

Peter Doherty

Trained initially as a veterinarian, Peter Doherty is Australian immunologist and pathologist who, with Rolf Zinkernagel of Switzerland, received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1996 for their discovery of how the body’s immune system distinguishes virus-infected cells from normal cells. After leading a research laboratory at the Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, and teaching at the University of Pennsylvania (1975–82), Peter headed the department of experimental pathology at the John Curtin School of Medical Research in Canberra (1982–88) and served as chairman (1988–2001) of the department of immunology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, where he still holds the Michael F Tamer Chair of Biomedical Research. In 2002, he joined the faculty of medicine at the University of Melbourne, and from 2014, has been at the Peter Doherty Institute (PDI) for Infection and Immunity, a joint venture between the university and the Royal Melbourne Hospital. The Nobel award led to an increasing involvement in public science communication, both in his own area of viral pathogenesis and immunity and in topics related to environmental sustainability and climate change. He is active on social media and was a prominent commentator through the first two years of COVID-19. After working on infection and immunity at one level or other for 60 years, he moved to emeritus status at the University of Melbourne in July 2023, though he continues to be the Patron of the PDI.

Peter is the author of many books, including The Beginner’s Guide to Winning the Nobel Prize: A Life in Science (2005), Sentinel Chickens: What Birds Tell Us About Our Health and the World (2012), Pandemics: what everyone needs to know (2013) The Knowledge Wars (2015), The Incidental Tourist (2018), An Insider’s Plague Year (2021) and most recently Empire, War, Tennis and Me (2022).

Who should attend

Alumni, Industry, Government. 

Tickets

This is a ticketed event, and sales will be open to the public. Tickets are $50 per person and include one complimentary drink and light refreshments. 

Location

The Long Room, Customs House, Brisbane City.