Online Webinar
Summary:World-leading researcher on the fast detection of viruses, Professor Michael Breadmore, delivers the 2021 Arthur Cobbold Memorial Lecture.
Presenter(s):
- Professor Michael Breadmore, Director, ACROSS
- Nicola Stephens, Associate Professor of Public Health
- Dr Mark Veitch, Director of Public Health
- Professor Katie Flanagan, Head of Infectious Diseases, Launceston General Hospital
- Hosted by Professor James Vickers, Head, School of Medicine
In 2020, the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic changed the world and the way in which we live and interact. The virus spread rapidly around the world due to our highly mobile nature and has impacted every region in the world. Management and containment has essentially been the same strategy used to manage the Spanish Flu pandemic a century ago – physical isolation and quarantine. This is because it is not possible to rapidly detect infectious carriers within the community in a timeframe that is effective and for a cost that is acceptable. The task is difficult and the challenges are many, but there is hope. Airports, bombs, butchers and steak have inspired and informed how we think we can help the world by detecting viruses within minutes.
Professor Michael Breadmore delivers the 2021 Arthur Cobbold Memorial Lecture, followed by a discussion on living with COVID-19 featuring Associate Professor of Public Health, Nicola Stephens, Tasmania's Director of Public Health, Dr Mark Veitch and Head of Infectious Diseases at Launceston General Hospital, Professor Katie Flanagan.
About the Speaker
Professor Michael Breadmore is an analytical chemist and ARC Future Fellow at the University of Tasmania's College of Sciences and Engineering. He obtained his PhD in Analytical Chemistry in 2001 from the University of Tasmania, and was awarded his DSc in 2017. He has published over 180 peer-reviewed papers, supported over the past 17 years at UTAS with over $22 million of research funding. He has held three ARC fellowships and his recognition includes the 2019 Eureka Prize for Outstanding Science for Safeguarding Australia, finalist for the Eureka's best young scientist award, Australian Research Magazine's Analytical Chemistry Field Leader (2018-19), and Analytical Scientist’s power list of the top 100 analytical chemists in the world (2014, '17, '19, '20). He is co-inventor on a number of patents and has three commercial products based on his research currently at market. He heads UTAS's Australian Centre for Research on Separation Science (ACROSS).
About the Lecture
The Arthur Cobbold Memorial Lecture honours the memory of Professor Arthur Cobbold, a seminal figure in the establishment of medical education at the University of Tasmania, and health policy and administration in Tasmania.
Professor Cobbold was an inspirational lecturer, a highly competent researcher, and an excellent administrator. He was much loved by his students and over three decades had immense influence on all medical issues in the State. From 1964, when he arrived as Foundation Professor of Physiology, to his retirement 21 years later he very much shaped the School and the lives of many of those in it. He served as Dean of Medicine for 13 years.
The lecture was established in 2011, two years after Professor Cobbold’s death, and each year provides an annual opportunity for the community to gain an insight into contemporary developments in medicine.
