Professor John Shine

Professor John Shine AC (b. 1946), biochemist and philanthropist, was born in Brisbane and completed his undergraduate and doctoral degrees at the Australian National University in Canberra in the 1970s. After an illustrious career in the 1970s and 1980s, he became the director of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney in 1990 – a position he was to hold until 2011. From 1990 to 2011 he directed the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney. During this period he was named a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, to which, later, he donated a million dollars. The funds enabled the renovation of the Academy’s heritage ‘Martian Embassy’ headquarters, which, since 2000, has been called the Shine Dome. From 2003 to 2006 he was Chairman of the National Health and Medical Research Council. Recipient of the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science in 2010, Shine is currently the Lab Head for Neuronal Stem Cells at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and a Professor of Medicine and Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of New South Wales. He is the chair of the biopharmaceutical company CSL Limited and an honorary fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. He was made AC in 2017 'for eminent service to medical research, particularly in the area of biopharmaceuticals and molecular biology, to higher education as an academic, to professional medical organisations, and as a supporter of the advancement of innovation in science.'