Gustav Nossal | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Nossal at the 5th World Conference of Science Journalists in 2007 | |
| Born | Gustav Victor Joseph Nossal (1931-06-04)4 June 1931 (age 93) Bad Ischl, Austria |
| Alma mater | University of Sydney(BSc), University of Melbourne(PhD) |
| Known for | His contributions to the fields of antibody formation and immunological tolerance |
| Awards | Albert Einstein World Award of Science (1990) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Immunology |
| Institutions | The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research,Melbourne |
| Doctoral students | Michael F. Good |
Sir Gustav Victor Joseph Nossal (born 4 June 1931) is an Austrian-born Australian research biologist. He is famous for his contributions to the fields of antibody formation and immunological tolerance.
Nossal's family was fromVienna, Austria. He was born four weeks prematurely inBad Ischl while his mother was on holiday. His family left their home town ofVienna for Australia in 1939 followingNazi Germany's annexation of Austria. As his father's grandparents were Jewish, he was also considered Jewish and at risk of being sent to concentration camps. In an interview withAdam Spencer, Nossal noted that his father was not a professing Jew but of Jewish ethnicity as he had been baptised a Roman Catholic as a child. Nossal remarked that his father "therefore thought that he would be somewhat protected from the Holocaust-type predicament. Of course, he hadn't properly readMein Kampf. It was all spelt out there: if your four grandparents were Jewish, then you were Jewish."[1] He was baptised and remains a practising Roman Catholic.[2]
Nossal showed interest in medicine and wanted to become a doctor since the age of seven.[3] When he first attended school in Australia, Nossal spoke no English[4]but he graduated fromSt Aloysius' College in 1947[5]as thedux of the college.[6] In 1948, he entered theSydney Medical School, graduating later withfirst-class honours from theUniversity of Sydney. At the age of 26, he left his job in Sydney and moved toMelbourne to work withMacfarlane Burnet in medical science at theWalter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and gained hisPhD degree at theUniversity of Melbourne in 1960.
On describing his views on religion Nossal said:
For me, a large part of that is a tremendously strong identification with the mission of the Church. An instinct for justice is central to that mission and central to being a Catholic...Science deals with fundamentally repeatable, objective, verifiable observations. It deals with hypotheses of which you can at least say "this is not patently false." But the human experience, on the other hand, does not just deal with verifiable facts. The human experience has Shakespeare. It has Beethoven. It has Thomas Aquinas. There is no scientist alive who can tell me how the brain of Shakespeare differs from the brain of the worst scribbler for the tabloid press. This is not yet and may never be in the realm of science... We have to access this huge other area of human experience through other means. Call them the humanities. Theology, of course, is one of the great humanities. A human being struggling to understand the cosmos and to understand his or her own consciousness is not at all antipathetic or opposed to me struggling to understand how cells make antibody molecules.
— [2]
Following the retirement of Macfarlane Burnet in 1965, at the age of 35 Nossal became director of Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, a position that he kept until 1996. In parallel, he was Professor of Medical Biology at theUniversity of Melbourne. Nossal's research was in fundamentalimmunology, in the field of "antibody formation and immunological tolerance".[7] He has written five books and 530 scientific articles in this and related fields.
Nossal has been President (1970-1973) of the 30,000-member world body of immunology, theInternational Union of Immunological Societies; President of theAustralian Academy of Science (1994-1998); a member of the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council (PMSEIC) (1989 to 1998); and Chairman of theVictorian Health Promotion Foundation (1987-1996). He has been chairman of the committee overseeing theWorld Health Organization's Vaccines and Biologicals Program (1993-2002) and Chairman of the Strategic Advisory Council of theBill & Melinda Gates FoundationChildren's Vaccine Program (1998-2003). He was Deputy Chairman of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation from 1998 to 2000. He was Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the Global Foundation,[8] The purpose of the foundation was to"encourage Australia’s sustainable national development in a global context." Sir Gustav is a member of the Patrons Council of theEpilepsy Foundation of Victoria and of the advisory board of theHealth Impact Fund.
Nossal is married to Lyn whom he met and later married on completion of his medical course at the University of Sydney. Together, they have four children and nine grandchildren.[9][10]
