Prof John S. Mackenzie

Professor Mackenzie holds a PhD in Microbiology (Virology) of the Australian National University, and his post-doctoral training at the Public Health Research Institute of the City of New York. Author of over 350 publications, he is a fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and the American Academy of Microbiology. He is an Emeritus Professor of Curtin University where he had been Professor of Tropical Virus Diseases. He formerly held the Chair of Microbiology at The University of Queensland and academic positions including a Personal Chair in Microbiology at The University of Western Australia. He is currently an Honorary Professor of The University of Queensland and an Honorary Senior Principal Fellow at the Burnet Institute, Melbourne.

He is a Past President of the Australian Society for Microbiology, and a former Secretary-General of the International Union of Microbiological Societies. He currently serves as a member of the WHO’s International Health Regulations (IHR) Emergency Committee on the International Spread of Polio and of the IHR Emergency Committee regarding the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). He had previously chaired the IHR Emergency Committee on Pandemic Influenza in 2009-10. He was a member of the Steering Committee of the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) between 2001 and 2017, and of the Technical Advisory Committee of the Asian Pacific Strategy for Emerging Diseases (APSED) from 2005-17.

He was the inaugural recipient of the Mahathir Science Award of the Malaysian Academy of Sciences, awarded in recognition of contributions and innovations towards solving problems in the tropics through science and technology. He co-founded the World One Health Congresses, the first being held in Melbourne in 2012, and co-founded the One Health Platform Foundation between 2014 and 2021. The One Health Platform was initiated as a scientific network to assist in communication and sharing research information in the One Health arena, and running the World One Health Congresses and Forums. He has been a member of various WHO and Australian national committees concerned with viral diseases and health security.