Warwick Anderson

Biography – Dr. Warwick Anderson AO

Warwick Anderson is Emeritus Professor, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University.. He obtained his Ph. D. from the University of Adelaide and held postdoctoral research positions at Harvard Medical School, the University of Sydney, and the Baker Medical Research Institute. He has been the Head of the School of Biomedical Sciences and Professor of Physiology at Monash University

His research is on the renal causes of high blood pressure, publishing over 170 peer reviewed articles. He has also published extensively on research policy issues..

Until July 2021, he was Secretary General of the International Human Frontier Science Program Organization.  This organisation funds international collaborative basic life science research and is supported by 14 leading scientific research countries and the EU. It has supported 28 scientists who went on to win a Nobel Prize.

He was appointed the inaugural Chief Executive Officer of the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia following its establishment as an independent statutory agency (from 2006 to 2015). He renewed NHMRC's peer review processes, established funding vehicles to support newly developing research fields, reformed NHMRC's health guidelines processes, established an Australian ethical framework for responsible conduct of research, introduced targeted research calls especially for research funding to improving Aboriginal health. He also greatly expanded NHMRC's international research support including through the Global Alliance for Chronic Disease and the International Cancer Genome Consortium, and through bilateral agreements with research funding bodies in Singapore, China, New Zealand, the EU and Canada.  NHMRC funding doubled during his tenure as CEO. He was Chair of NHMRC’s Research Committee from 1997 to 2003 and, from 2006 until 2015,

Prof Anderson has been a member of many international research and scientific organisations, and he currently chairs the Global Biodata Coalition of the world’s major international research funding organisations.

He has been a member of numerous national scientific and advisory bodies including the Prime Minister's Science Engineering and Innovation Council.

He is an International Fellow of the American Heart Foundation and an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Science. He has honorary doctorates from the University of Adelaide, the University of Newcastle and Monash University.  He was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2023.