Professor Alan Cowman AC

Malaria researcher

Bachelor of Science 1979

Bachelor of Science with Honours 1980

Professor Alan Cowman, FRS FAA, is one of the world’s leading scientists in malaria research. He has published more than 260 papers in top journals and been elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Sciences (2001) and a Fellow of the Royal Society (London) in 2011.

Professor Cowman is head of the division of Infection and Immunity and deputy director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI); a senior principal research fellow, professorial fellow at the University of Melbourne and a visiting professor at Harvard University. He has played a major role in the nurturing of scientists to move on to leadership positions and mentored many PhD students and post-doctoral fellows.

The Griffith University graduate feels lucky he gets to live and breathe his lifelong passion while working towards saving lives from malaria. Since graduating in 1978 with a Bachelor of Science with Honours under his belt, Professor Cowman has been an integral part of the WEHI laboratory and its focus on malaria, a disease that is responsible for more than 400,000 deaths a year around the world, and aims to develop a vaccine and new treatments.