Professor Lawrie Powell is UQ's 1999 Alumnus of the Year

Director of the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, UQ medical graduate and liver researcher Professor Lawrie Powell is the University of Queensland Alumnus of the Year.

Professor Powell is the eighth recipient of the annual award, established in 1992, which honours University graduates who have achieved distinction in their chosen fields, outstanding reputations among their peers and support from and for their alma mater.

Previous winners include Nobel Laureate Peter Doherty, Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush, and cancer researcher Dr Rodney Withers.

"I'm completely taken by surprise at this award and am honoured to be treading in the footsteps of previous awardees," he said.

After completing his early postgraduate training at the Royal Brisbane Hospital he won an RACP scholarship to study at Royal Free Hospital and the University of London. He returned in 1966 and was appointed Senior Lecturer in the UQ Medicine Department. Subsequent study leave included training at the Harvard Medical School, the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston and Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Professor Powell was awarded a personal Chair by the University of Queensland in 1975.

In collaboration with Professor June Halliday and Professor Graham Cooksley, Professor Powell established an internationally recognised liver research group which made significant contributions to understanding inherited liver disease and cirrhosis especially haemochromatosis. The group was awarded a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) program grant in 1982 which was renewed in each successive round until finally it was incorporated into a QIMR block grant in 1998.

In 1990 Professor Powell was appointed QIMR director. Over the past nine years the Institute has grown threefold in size. He was instrumental in developing and planning the Comprehensive Cancer Research Centre due for completion in 2002 at a cost of $64 million. When fully operational, the Centre will house 1000 scientists and support staff.

Professor Powell has received numerous national and international awards. These include a Gold Medal from the Canadian Liver Foundation "for outstanding life time contributions to hepatology" and the Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in 1990. He was elected President of the International Association for the Study of the Liver (1986 to 1988) and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in London in 1990.

Professor Powell will receive his Alumnus of the Year Award at a UQ graduation ceremony in December.

Further information: contact the University Alumni office (telephone 07 3365 1554)

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