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Until her death early in 2007, Aileen Plant was a public health physician who made an enormous contribution to infectious disease control in Australia and many other countries. Aileen was a senior consultant to the World Health Organization and to the Australian Department of Health in the management of infectious disease outbreaks, a Professor of International Health at Curtin University, and head of the Perth node of the Australian Biosecurity research collaboration. Aileen is best remembered for her practical approach to infectious disease control. Aileen was sent by WHO to manage the Vietnam SARS outbreak, and the Vietnam Government recognised Aileen's extraordinary work with the award of a national medal. Aileen died in Indonesia just after completing an important assignment on avian influenza for WHO. Aileen had a warm and generous nature, and a habit of turning colleagues into lifelong friends.
Charles Watson lives in Perth and is now a professorial research fellow at Curtin University and the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute. After graduating in medicine, he taught anatomy for 14 years at UWA and UNSW. Charles then turned to a career in public health in the Health Department of Western Australia, and became Chief Health Officer in 1993. During his 11 years in the Health Department, Charles set up the Quit campaign, led the WA fight against HIV/AIDS, established breast cancer screening, and became a national leader in immunisation policy. After leaving the Health Department in 1994, Charles became a Dean of Health Sciences, first at Wollongong, then at Curtin. Thomson Scientific lists one of his publications, a rat brain atlas, as one of the fifty most-cited publications of all time. For his work in brain research and public health, Charles was made a member of the Order of Australia in 2004. |
