Top researcher returns to Melbourne to lead Walter & Eliza Hall Institute

A Melbourne-educated scientist turned global leader, Professor Ken Smith, is the new director of the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute, which strives to solve complex health issues.

Professor Ken Smith is the new director of the legendary Melbourne-based research institute WEHI.

A world leader in immunology research, he will return to Melbourne in May to take up the position after more than 13 years as head of the Department of Medicine at Cambridge University in the UK.

Announcing the appointment on Thursday afternoon WEHI president Jane Hemstritch said Professor Smith had been instrumental in forming alliances between industry and academia globally.

WEHI president Jane Hemstritch has announced the appointment of Professor Ken Smith as director. Image: Supplied.

“Professor Smith is a leader with a global perspective, funding and commercial experience and a proven track record in all facets of medical research, clinical practice and strategic leadership,” Mrs Hemstritch said.

In a statement she said Professor Smith was a WEHI alum. He completed his Doctor of Philosophy at WEHI through the University of Melbourne, supervised by former WEHI director Sir Gustav Nossal and Professor David Tarlinton.

His Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery is also from the University of Melbourne and his Doctor of Science is from the University of Cambridge.

Professor Smith was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2006, to the American Association of Physicians in 2020, and was awarded the Lister Institute Research Prize in 2007.  

Sir Gustav Nossal served as director of WEHI from 1965-1996. Image: Jon Hargest.

The Smith Lab at Cambridge University runs an experimental medicine and translational program focused on understanding the mechanisms underlying immune-mediated diseases. Prof Smith is also Director of the Cambridge Institute for Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease.

“WEHI is globally-renowned for its outstanding history of critical discoveries in cancer, immune health and infection, developmental disorders and healthy ageing,” he said in a statement today.

“I’m looking forward to returning to WEHI, and to meeting the staff, students and supporters that are striving to help solve some of the world’s most complex health problems.”

Professor Alan Cowman continues as acting director until Professor Smith takes up the appointment that will see him become the seventh director of WEHI in the institute’s 108-year history.