Staff

Professor Michael Alpers

BSc(Adel), MBBS(Adel), MA(Camb), FTWAS, FACTM, FAFPHM
Email: m.alpers@curtin.edu.au

Professor Michael Alpers is John Curtin distinguished Professor of International Health. He has spent much of his working life carrying out field studies in rural communities in the tropics, in which the communities themselves participate. Such studies have been multidisciplinary in design, with cultural and behavioural as well as clinical, epidemiological and laboratory aspects. He has spent 45 years studying kuru and is a member of the Australian Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies Advisory Committee.

Professor Alpers has a strong commitment to community health and equity in health in an international context. He has long been an advocate for the integrated study of human biology in the broadest sense as a basis for understanding human behaviour and human diseases. He is currently a Member or Fellow of 30 professional societies and associations. His research interests include prion diseases, malaria, respiratory diseases (pneumonia, asthma), virus diseases of the tropics and filariasis.

Professor Michael Alpers was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for his service to medical science in the fields of international tropical medicine and public health, research on the disease kuru and contributions to improving health and economic development in Papua New Guinea.

Professor Rosemary Coates

BMS(Manc), BAppSc(WAIT), BA(WAust), GCertBioEth(Monash), GDipEd(Murd), MSc(NY), PhD(Murd)
Email: r.coates@curtin.edu.au

Professor Coates has more than 30 years experience teaching and researching in the areas of Sexual Health and Medical Ethics (Bioethics). She has published extensively, often combining her two areas of expertise, for example, ethical issues associated with HIV/AIDS; ethics in sex research; issues in fertility enhancement. Her current interest is in the area of human sexual rights and sexual slavery. Professor Coates is the Asia-Pacific Secretary for the World Association of Sexology (WAS). She is also the Chair of the Ethics Committee for WAS and is the immediate past Chair of the Curtin University Ethics Committee, a position she held for 8 years. She continues to serve as a member of the Curtin University Human Research Ethics Committee. Professor Coates also serves as a member of the World Health Organization Gender Advisory Board.

Professor Coates supervises students' research and teaches in the postgraduate program. Prof Coates is the author of the chapter on Australia in the International Encyclopaedia of Sexology (Edited By R Francouer).

Professor John Mackenzie

BSc(Hons)(Edun.), PhD(ANU), FASM, FACTM
Email: j.Mackenzie@curtin.edu.au

Professor John Mackenzie's research interests extend across the spectrum of infectious disease emergence, and especially the areas of zoonotic and vector-borne viral diseases, and the establishment of national and international surveillance systems to detect, monitor and verify such disease outbreaks. The diseases include those transmitted to humans from an animal reservoir, particularly wildlife reservoirs, and those transmitted to humans by mosquito vectors. Thus his laboratory has been interested in understanding the role of fruit bats (flying foxes) in the appearance of novel virus diseases such as Hendra virus and Australian bat lyssavirus, and other animal reservoirs for diseases such as SARS, and in the spread of mosquito-borne diseases, such as Japanese encephalitis virus. Professor Mackenzie is a member of various World Health Organization committees concerned with disease surveillance and response and is Secretary-General of the International Union of Microbiological Societies.

Professor Mackenzie is of the view that early detection of disease outbreaks is essential to enable control procedures to be initiated. He is interested in preparedness planning in both Western Australia and across northern tropical Australia for the possible incursion of new or emerging diseases of humans and animals. His research interests include exploring the reasons and mechanisms of disease emergence such the effects of as building dams and using water for irrigated agriculture, rapid international transportation, and changes to climate.

Vale Professor Aileen Plant

MBBS(WAust), DTM&H(Lond), MPH, PhD(Syd), FAFPHM

While working in Jakarta, Professor Aileen Plant suddenly passed away on 27 March 2007.

Professor Aileen Plant was one of the World Health Organization's leading experts in outbreak investigation and a medical epidemiologist, as well as a professor of international health at Curtin. Professor Plant also held the position of Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Biosecurity CRC for Emerging Infectious Diseases. Within her extensive experience in outbreak investigation, her main interests were in the applied research and policy aspects of infectious disease control. She was passionate about her work and travelled extensively, often with great risk to herself, to help people and countries in need of her expertise.

It was her vast experience in the field of infectious disease control which prompted the WHO to invite her to join an expert investigation team being assembled in Vietnam to investigate the outbreak of a deadly virus. That virus became known as SARS. Professor Plant and the medical investigation team in Hanoi worked tirelessly to identify the virus and to develop a method for its control, again at great risk to their own personal safety. In recognition of her leadership during the SARS epidemic, Professor Plant was awarded the National Medal of Honour by the Vietnamese Government for her leadership of the SARS outbreak control program.

Professor Plant was a leader in her field and a person of great compassion. She was dedicated to her work at Curtin and on behalf of the entire Curtin community we send our deepest sympathy to her family, to her research colleagues and to the Curtin community who loved and admired her greatly.

*Excerpt from Curtin VC Note to Staff 28 March 2007.

Professor Steve Allsop

BSc(Hons)(Stirling), PGradDipAlcStud(Paisley), PhD(Curtin)
Email: s.allsop@curtin.edu.au

In addition to his role with the Centre for International Health, Steve Allsop is the Director of the National Drug Research Institute, Western Australia. He has worked in the drug field for over 20 years and been involved in clinical research and professional and organisational development for human service providers, including health and welfare staff, police and community organisations. His work in the Centre includes contributions to teaching and supervision of doctoral candidates.

A/Professor Allsop's research interests are in clinical and rapid assessment responses to alcohol and drug-related harm and enhancing the capacity of professionals and organisations including the police and workplaces to respond.