ASMR Medical Research Week® 2024 will be held from 21 to 28 October 2024 and we are delighted to announce that it will feature Professor Matt Dun from the University of Newcastle/Hunter Medical Research Institute as the 2024 ASMR Medallist.
The week is a flagship activity for The Australian Society for Medical Research, and a major highlight of the Australian health and medical research calendar, bringing the message of the benefits of health and medical research to the Australian public.
This annual event features the ASMR medallist tour, scientific meetings and Gala Dinners in most capital cities and professional development programmes for medical researchers. The ASMR National Scientific Conference will be held during ASMR Medical Research Week® for the first time (in Adelaide on 21-22 October 2024). Public outreach events will also be held, including career events for high school and tertiary students, and an on-line schools quiz.
Each year the Society awards the ASMR Medal to an eminent stakeholder in the medical research community for achievements in raising awareness. Professor Matt Dun was already researching childhood cancers when his research career took a deeply personal turn. In 2018, his young daughter, Josephine, was diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour and, faced with the reality of a diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) diagnosis, the most aggressive of all childhood cancers, Professor Dun has dedicated his career to finding effective treatments. Tragically, Josephine passed away almost 2 years from diagnosis, which fuelled his mission to combat DIPG relentlessly. The ASMR medallist tours Australia, addressing audiences at dinners across the country and the National Press Club in Canberra. The ASMR Medal is presented at the National Press Club event. The tour promotes debate and discussion amongst scientists, politicians and the public, and attracts strong media interest.
Since 1998, an list of eminent scientists have generously shared their experience, their vision and their insights, inspiring, sometimes challenging and always informing, not only the health and medical research community but the community at large.