Affiliate

John Mattick returned to Australia in October 2019 and is working with School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences at UNSW. He has been a Senior Research Fellow with Visiting University Professorship at Green Templeton College, Oxford, and a Distinguished Visitor at St John’s College, Oxford and previously Chief Executive of Genomics England, and Director of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, where he established a major genome sequencing facility and one of the first clinically accredited genome analysis enterprises. He was also the Foundation Director of the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, the Australian Genome Research Facility, the Australian Research Council (ARC) Special Research Centres for Molecular & Cell Biology, and for Functional & Applied Genomics at the University of Queensland, as well as ARC Federation Fellow and NHMRC Australia Fellow.

Professor Mattick was a member of the Australian Health Ethics Committee of the Australian National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC), where he was involved in the development of the National Statement on the Ethical Conduct of Research involving Humans, and the joint Australian Law Reform Commission / AHEC Enquiry into the Protection of Human Genetic Information. He has served on the editorial boards of many journals, institutional advisory bodies and research review committees, including, inter alia, the Council of Scientists of the Human Frontier Science Program, and was Chair of several Genome Canada competitions and reviews.

Professor Mattick is well known for his work showing that the majority of the human genome is not junk but rather specifies an RNA-based regulatory system that organises cell biology and development. He has published over 300 research articles and reviews, which have been cited over 40,000 times (Scopus, h-index 95; Google Scholar over 60,000 citations, h-index 111), and was among the top 1% of cited authors in his field in 2018. His work has received editorial coverage in Nature, Science, Scientific American, New Scientist and the New York Times, among others, and featured in books on genomics and scientific advances. He has delivered 160 keynote and plenary lectures at major scientific conferences, and over 300 seminars at research institutions around the world.

Professor Mattick’s honours and awards include the inaugural Gutenberg Professorship of the University of Strasbourg, the Order of Australia, the Australian Centenary Medal, Fellowship of the Australian Academies of Science, Technology & Engineering, and Health & Medical Sciences, Membership of the European Molecular Biology Organization, Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia, the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Medal, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Bertner Award for Distinguished Contributions to Cancer Research, and the Human Genome Organisation Chen Award for Distinguished Achievement in Human Genetic and Genomic Research.