Biography
Professor Dawson is a clinician-scientist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and Centre for Cancer Research University of Melbourne. He is the co-program head of the Cancer Biology and Therapeutics Program, Group leader of the Cancer Epigenetics Laboratory and Consultant Haematologist in the Department of Haematology. His research interest is studying the role of epigenetic regulators in the initiation, maintenance and progression of cancer.
He is a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia. After completing his clinical training in Melbourne, Australia he was awarded the prestigious General Sir John Monash Fellowship and Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Fellowship, which he used to complete his PhD at the University of Cambridge. Following his PhD, he was awarded the inaugural Wellcome Trust Beit Prize Fellowship to pursue his research into epigenetic regulation of leukaemia stem cells.
His research has identified new therapeutic strategies for a range of cancers and has helped set the platform for clinical trials with first in class epigenetic therapies.
He is currently a Professor in the Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology and Centre of Cancer Research at the University of Melbourne. He is the Sir Edward Dunlop Fellow for the Cancer Council of Victoria and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute International Research Scholar.
In recognition of his research achievements, he has been elected to the Australian Academy of Science, the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences and as an EMBO member. He has received several prestigious awards including the McCulloch & Till Award from the International Society of Experimental Haematology, the Jacques Miller Medal from the Australian Academy of Science and the Prime Minister’s Prize as Life Scientist of the year in 2020.
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Awards
2021 Elected to the Australian Academy of Science
2021 Elected to the European Molecular Biology Organization
2021 Jacques Miller Medal from the Australian Academy of Science
2020 Australian Prime Minister’s Science Prize as Frank Fenner Life Scientist of the Year
2020 McCullogh and Till Award from the International Society of Experimental Haematology
2019 Sir Edward Dunlop Fellow for the Cancer Council of Victoria
2019 Dame Kate Campbell Fellowship, University of Melbourne
2017 Elected to the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Science
2017 Metcalf Prize for Stem Cell Research
2017 Howard Hughes Medical Institute, International Research Scholar
2014 Senior Fellow, Leukaemia Foundation Australia.
2014 Victorian Endowment for Science, Knowledge & Innovation (VESKI) fellow
2014 Herman Clinical Fellow, University of Melbourne.
2010 Wellcome-Beit Prize Fellowship
2006 General Sir John Monash Scholarship
2006 Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Fellowship