Professor Anne Kelso AO FAA FAHMS | Independent
Professor Anne Kelso was Chief Executive Officer of the National Health and Medical Research Council from 2015 to 2023. In this role, she oversaw the agency’s national research grant program, the updating of national codes of research ethics, development of health guidelines and the regulation of research using human embryos. She served ex officio on the Board of the International Human Frontier Science Program Organization, the Strategy Board of the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases and a range of Australian Government committees.
In her earlier career, after completing her PhD at the University of Melbourne, Professor Kelso undertook research in immunology at the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research, WEHI, the Queensland Institute of Medical Research and the Doherty Institute, and held leadership roles as Director of the CRC for Vaccine Technology (2000-2006) and the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza (2007-2015). She was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences in 2018. In 2023, she was awarded an honorary doctorate in medical science by the University of Melbourne where she is an honorary professorial fellow.