Australia Day award for infertility expert
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An infertility expert whose scientific interest was sparked while growing up on a sheep station is among those recognised this Australia Day.
Professor Jock Findlay of Prince Henry’s Institute in Melbourne, has been made an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO) for his contribution to the field of reproductive endocrinology.
It is the latest in a line of honours for Findlay, who is one of the original collaborators on a paper in the journal Nature that reported the first successful in vitro fertilisation pregnancy using hormone replacement to prepare the uterus.
But Findlay says this latest recognition is a “completely unexpected honour”.
As well as being awarded a Member in the Order of Australia (AM) in 2001, Findlay’s work in understanding the ovary has been recognised internationally.
He has been previously awarded for his finding that the regulation of egg development and ovulation is not just hormonally based.
Rather, interactions between cells in the ovary, he calls “local regulation”, also play a significant role.
Findlay says this knowledge can lead to improved outcomes in stimulating women to produce eggs in IVF procedures.
In 2006, Findlay was awarded the Dale Medal by the UK Society for Endocrinology for his studies that changed fundamental understanding of endocrinology.
And in the same year became the first Australian to receive the Distinguished Scientist Award from the UK Society for Reproduction and Fertility.
The sexagenarian says he is just “peaking” in his research having just been granted National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funding for a five-year project into reproductive health and a four-year fellowship.
He has also recently been appointed director of research at The Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne.
Sheep farm inspiration
Findlay was born in Broken Hill in 1944 and grew up on a sheep station.
His early experiences naturally segued in 1962 into enrolment into a Bachelor of Agricultural Sciences at the University of Adelaide where he focused on animal reproduction.
After his PhD he soon took up a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Bonn in Germany.
Findlay returned to Australia in the early 1970s, where he took up a post in physiology at the University of Melbourne and joined Prince Henry’s Institute in 1979, where he is now head of the Female Reproductive Endocrinology Group.
His greatest achievement over a career spanning almost 40 years, he says, is “the fact I’ve been doing something I really love doing”.
“I’ve lived off grants my whole career and have been able to do research the whole of my life,” he says.
Findlay, who serves on numerous committees including chairing the NHMRC’s Embryo Research Licensing Committee says it has also been important to give back to the science community.
He lives in Hawthorn, Victoria with his wife Anne. They have two sons.
Other scientists honoured
Other scientists and researchers recognised in the Australia Day Honours include:
* Palaeontologist Professor Michael Archer, Dean of Science at the University of New South Wales for his work in the promotion of sustainable management of wildlife, scientific education and research and mentoring and administrative roles.
* Dr Bob Henzell, of the Queensland Department of Primary Industries, for service to agriculture through plant breeding programs.
* Professor Vance Gledhill, of the University of Sydney, for service to computer science.
* Dr Lorna Melville, of the Northern Territory’s Department of Primary Industry, Fisheries and Mines for her work in veterinary science particularly in the are of arbovirus infection.
* Adjunct Professor Michael Lawrence-Brown, at the School of Population Health, Curtin University in Western Australia for service to medicine in the field of endovascular surgery.
* Emeritus Professor Michael Miller, of the University of South Australia, for his role in the development and innovation of future generation telecommunications technology.
Dani Cooper
ABC
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