Gustav Nossal

Sir Gustav Nossal ACCBEFRSFAAFTSE
Nossal at the 5th World Conference of Science Journalists in 2007
Born	Gustav Victor Joseph Nossal (1931-06-04)4 June 1931 Bad Ischl,Austria
Alma mater	University of Sydney(BSc), University of Melbourne(PhD)
Known for	His contributions to the fields of antibody formation and immunological tolerance
Awards	Albert Einstein World Award of Science(1990)
Scientific career
Fields	Immunology
Institutions	The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research,Melbourne
Doctoral students	Michael F. Good
Signature

Sir Gustav Victor Joseph NossalACCBEFRSFAAFTSE(born 4 June 1931) is an Austrian-born Australian research biologist. He is famous for his contributions to the fields of antibody formation and immunological tolerance.

Early life and education

Nossal's family was fromVienna,Austria. He was born four weeks prematurely inBad Ischlwhile his mother was on holiday. His family left their home town ofViennafor Australia in 1939 followingNazi Germany's annexation of Austria. As his father's grandparents were Jewish, he was also considered Jewish and at risk of being sent to concentration camps. In an interview withAdam Spencer,Nossal noted that his father was not a professing Jew but of Jewish ethnicity as he had been baptised a Roman Catholic as a child. Nossal remarked that his father "therefore thought that he would be somewhat protected from the Holocaust-type predicament. Of course, he hadn't properly readMein Kampf.It was all spelt out there: if your four grandparents were Jewish, then you were Jewish. "He was baptised and remains a practising Roman Catholic.

Nossal showed interest in medicine and wanted to become a doctor since the age of seven.When he first attended school in Australia, Nossal spoke no English but he graduated fromSt Aloysius' Collegein 1947 as theduxof the college.In 1948, he entered theSydney Medical School,graduating later withfirst-class honoursfrom theUniversity of Sydney.At the age of 26, he left his job in Sydney and moved toMelbourneto work withMacfarlane Burnetin medical science at theWalter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Researchand gained hisPhDdegree at theUniversity of Melbournein 1960.

Religious beliefs

On describing his views on religion Nossal said:

For me, a large part of that is a tremendously strong identification with the mission of the Church. An instinct for justice is central to that mission and central to being a Catholic... Science deals with fundamentally repeatable, objective, verifiable observations. It deals with hypotheses of which you can at least say "this is not patently false." But the human experience, on the other hand, does not just deal with verifiable facts. The human experience has Shakespeare. It has Beethoven. It has Thomas Aquinas. There is no scientist alive who can tell me how the brain of Shakespeare differs from the brain of the worst scribbler for the tabloid press. This is not yet and may never be in the realm of science... We have to access this huge other area of human experience through other means. Call them the humanities. Theology, of course, is one of the great humanities. A human being struggling to understand the cosmos and to understand his or her own consciousness is not at all antipathetic or opposed to me struggling to understand how cells make antibody molecules.

— 

Career

Following the retirement of Macfarlane Burnet in 1965, at the age of 35 Nossal became director of Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, a position that he kept until 1996. In parallel, he was Professor of Medical Biology at theUniversity of Melbourne.Nossal's research was in fundamentalimmunology,in the field of "antibody formation and immunological tolerance".He has written five books and 530 scientific articles in this and related fields.

Nossal has been President (1970-1973) of the 30,000-member world body of immunology, theInternational Union of Immunological Societies;President of theAustralian Academy of Science(1994-1998); a member of the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council (PMSEIC) (1989 to 1998); and Chairman of theVictorian Health Promotion Foundation(1987-1996). He has been chairman of the committee overseeing theWorld Health Organization's Vaccines and Biologicals Program (1993-2002) and Chairman of the Strategic Advisory Council of theBill & Melinda Gates FoundationChildren's Vaccine Program(1998-2003). He was Deputy Chairman of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation from 1998 to 2000. He was Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the Global Foundation,The purpose of the foundation was to"encourage Australia’s sustainable national development in a global context."Sir Gustav is a member of the Patrons Council of theEpilepsy Foundation of Victoriaand of the advisory board of theHealth Impact Fund.

Personal life

Nossal is married to Lyn whom he met and later married on completion of his medical course at the University of Sydney. Together, they have four children and nine grandchildren.

Awards and recognition

• 1964 -Royal Society of VictoriaMedal for Excellence in Scientific Research
• 1967 –Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science(FAA)
• 1969 –Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science
• 1969 – SSI Honorary Member
• 1970 –Emil von Behring Prize
• 1970 –Commander of the Order of the British Empire(CBE) for his contribution to medical research
• 1977 –Knightedfor his ground-breaking work in immunology
• 1979 –Macfarlane Burnet Medal and Lectureby theAustralian Academy of Science
• 1980 – Foreign Fellow of theIndian National Science Academy
• 1981 –Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering(FTSE)
• 1982 – Awarded theANZAAS Medal
• 1982 –Fellow of the Royal Society(FRS)
• 1982 –RostrumAward of Merit, for excellence in the art of public speaking over a considerable period and his demonstration of an effective contribution to society through the spoken word
• 1983 –Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh(HonFRSE)
• 1989 –Companion of the Order of Australia(AC) for his service to medicine, to science and to the community
• 1990 –Albert Einstein World Award of Science
• 1994 –James Cook Medal
• 1996 –Koch Gold Medal,the prize being awarded for prizes for major advances in biomedical sciences, particularly in the fields of microbiology and immunology.
• 1996 –Fellow of the Royal Society of Victoria(FRSV)
• 1997 – Listed as one of the 100 Australians identified asAustralia's Living National Treasures
• 2000 –Australian of the Year
• 2001 –Centenary Medalfor distinguished service to the study of antibody formation and immunological tolerance
• 2002 – Featured on anAustralian postage stamp
• 2006 – Honorary member of theMonash UniversityGolden Key Society
• 2007 – The Nossal Institute for Global Healthat theUniversity of Melbournewas named in honour of Nossal
• 2009 –Nossal High School,located at the then Berwick campus of Monash University, now the Berwick Campus of Federation University, was named in honour of Nossal
• 2010 – Inaugural Monash Medal as an Outstanding Australian for his contribution to the Australian community and beyond
• 2012 –Monash UniversityFaculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences Lifetime Achievement Award
• Foreign Member of theKorean Academy of Science and Technology

See also

• List of Australian of the Year Award recipients

External links

• Short biography
• Gustav Nossal – Virology Down Under
• 1987 interviewand1998 interviewon theAustralian Academy of Sciencewebsite.
• The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization—a millennial challenge
• Liz Cincotta. "Passage to Australia".The Age,19 June 2008.
• VideoArchived22 February 2012 at theWayback Machineof Gustav Nossal lecture onThe 50-Year Revolution in Global Public Health,Sydney University, July 2008