Professor of RNA Biology at the University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney). Throughout his career, he has held major leadership positions, including Chief Executive Officer of Genomics England, Director of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, and Founding Director of both the Institute for Molecular Bioscience at the University of Queensland and the Australian Genome Research Facility.
He is internationally recognized for his pioneering work on non-coding RNAs, particularly long non-coding RNAs, demonstrating their widespread expression in complex organisms and their central role in regulating gene expression, cell differentiation, immune responses, and processes such as development and learning.
He has published over 300 scientific papers, with more than 100,000 citations, and has received numerous international honors, including election as a Foreign Associate Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB) Medal, the Ernst W. Bertner Award from MD Anderson Cancer Center, and the Chen Award from the Human Genome Organisation (HUGO).
He is co-author of the book “RNA: The Epicenter of Genetic Information”, which was selected as Best Open Access Academic Book in Science (2022) by Taylor & Francis and received the Alan Jarvis Award for Outstanding Contributions to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
He currently serves as Professor of RNA Biology at the University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney).
