AUSTRALIA
Professor Andrew Hill
Professor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research & Impact, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia
Professor Andy Hill gained his BSc(Hons) in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand and his PhD at Imperial College, London. His PhD studied the molecular basis of human prion strains and he held post-doctoral positions in the MRC Prion Unit (London) and in the Department of Pathology at the University of Melbourne as a Wellcome Trust Prize Travelling Research Fellow. He has studied the biochemistry and molecular biology of prion diseases for nearly 30 years and leads a laboratory investigating prion and other neurodegenerative diseases. Recent work from his laboratory has demonstrated that small cellular particles (called extracellular vesicles) can transfer transmissible prions and also contain biomarkers with diagnostic potential for prion diseases.
Andy has been the recipient of several awards and prizes including a Victorian Young Tall Poppy Award in 2006, the Edman Award (2005), the Merck Research Excellence Medal (2010), and the Shimadzu Discovery Science Award from the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the Special Achievement Award from the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (2020), and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Australia and New Zealand Society for Extracellular Vesicles (2022).