Scientific Advisory Board

Professor David Cooper

David Cooper AO, Professor of Medicine at the University of New South Wales, is Director of the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research, Sydney, Australia. The major responsibilities of the National Centre are the epidemiology and surveillance of HIV/AIDS in Australia, including research aspects and the coordination and conduct of clinical trials of innovative therapies and vaccines for HIV disease, as well as an active clinical research program with particular emphasis on primary HIV infection and hepatitis C. Professor Cooper is Head of the Immunology/HIV/Infectious Diseases Clinical Service Unit at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney. He is co-Director of the St Vincent's Hospital Medical Research groups. Professor Cooper is an author on over 400 published scientific papers and is on the editorial boards of several international journals. Internationally, Professor Cooper is recognized as a leading HIV clinician and clinical investigator. He is a past President of the International AIDS Society. He is a Director of HIVNAT, a clinical research and trials collaboration based at the Thai Red Cross AIDS Research Centre at the Chulalongkorn University Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand.

Dr Eric Gowans

Dr Eric Gowans is a Senior Principal Research Fellow at the Macfarlane Burnet Institute, Melbourne. He currently holds a grant from the National Institutes of Health, USA to investigate the potential of immunotherapy in the treatment of HCV infection and was also awarded a NHMRC Research Fellowship in 2004. He is a member of the International Organising Committee for the annual meeting of HCV and Related Viruses. Dr Gowans was instrumental in forming the Australian Centre for Hepatitis Virology, Inc, a group comprised of basic scientists who work on the hepatitis viruses. He was awarded the Fenner Prize by the Australian Society for Microbiology and is an assessor for a number of virology and gastroenterology journals. Dr Gowans completed his early training at the Napier College, Edinburgh, a MAppSci at the University of South Australia (1982) and a PhD at the University of Adelaide (1986), followed by a year in Dr John Gerin's lab Georgetown University, Washington DC. On his return, he worked for a number of years on the molecular biology of hepatitis delta virus and developed an interest in the replication, pathogenesis and immunology of hepatitis C virus, when the virus was discovered in 1989. In 1994 he held the position of Deputy Director at Sir Albert Sakzewski Virus Research Centre, Royal Children's Hospital, Brisbane and was appointed Director one year later. He was also awarded a NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship. 

Professor Roy Jackson

Professor W. Roy Jackson is based at the Centre for Green Chemistry and in the School of Chemistry at Monash University and as Director of the Victorian Institute of Chemistry's Advisory Committee holds an  Honorary Professorship at the University of Melbourne. Professor Jackson is a graduate of Manchester (BSc) and London (PhD and DSc) Universities and is a Fellow of The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences an Engineering, The Royal Australian Chemical Institute (President 2002) and the Australian Institute of Energy. He has been awarded several medals by these learned societies and recently was awarded a Centenary of Federation Medal for services to Applied Chemistry. Professor Jackson was the foundation Director of the Centre for Green Chemistry at Monash University and was the first Sir John Monash Distinguished Professor. He has published ca. 350 academic publications and several patents. His academic research is based on the application of catalysis to synthetic chemistry and this has led to many collaborations with industry both in Australia (e.g. Amrad, ICI Australia, Circadian, Cortical, Dulux) and overseas (e.g. ICI, UK, BP, Kobe Steel).

Mr Mark Sullivan

Mr Mark Sullivan is currently the Chief Operating Officer of the Australian Thai HIV Vaccine Consortium. Mark has fifteen years experience in clinical development within biotechnology, large pharmaceutical companies, contract services, and government sector settings. His broad experience base encompasses the conduct of first exposure, proof of concept, phase 2, global phase 3, phase 3b design and implementation and phase 4 studies. Mr Sullivan was a core member of development programs 3TC for HIV (phases 1 to 3), lamivudine for chronic hepatitis B (phases 2 to 4, including global registration), and adefovir dipivoxil for chronic hepatitis B (phases 1 to 4, including global registration).