The College of Medicine and Public Health together with the Southern Adelaide Local Health Network will present the 2017 John Chalmers Oration on 7 September.

Part of the Flinders Health Research Week, the Oration commemorates the work of John Chalmers AC, who was the first Professor of Medicine at Flinders School of Medicine and Flinders Medical Centre, serving from 1975-1996.

This year’s oration will be presented by Professor Anne Kelso AO who is the Chief Executive Officer of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). Her chosen topic is ‘Crisis or Opportunity? A new era for medical research funding in Australia’.

Professor Kelso has explained the background for her choice of topic:

“Australia’s strong health and medical research sector has served us well over generations, contributing to our improved health and wellbeing and our deepening understanding of the processes that underpin health and disease.

“But ever increasing competition for funding has fuelled a sense of crisis about the sustainability of research careers and our place in the global research enterprise. In response, NHMRC is introducing significant reforms to the way it supports health and medical research.

“These reforms, together with the additional funding now being distributed from the Medical Research Future Fund, present new opportunities for the sector and government to reinvigorate and reshape Australia’s research endeavours,” says Professor Kelso.

Before joining NHMRC in April 2015, Professor Kelso spent many years as a biomedical researcher in immunology alongside other roles, most recently as Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza at the Doherty Institute in Melbourne.

Professor Kelso is a member of several government and international committees, including the Australian Medical Research Advisory Board, the Board of the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (chair-elect) and the Human Frontier Science Program organisation.

The 2017 John Chalmers Oration will take place on Thursday 7 September 2017 from 12.30pm-1.30pm at the Flinders University Health Sciences Lecture Theatre Complex 1.01, Bedford Park.

Entry is free and no booking is required.

There will be directional signage from the front of Flinders Medical Centre.

For more information please contact the College of Medicine and Public Health, phone (08) 7221 8200.