In 1973, he became Professor of Surgery at the University of Queensland. In 1978, he was appointed as the second James Stewart Professor of Surgery of the University of Melbourne at The Royal Melbourne Hospital and Chairman of the Division of Surgery.

Active in curriculum review and teaching within the hospital, he also maintained a strong commitment to research. Whilst in this role he identified the benefits that could flow to Australia in general, and the RMH in particular, if a Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research was established in close association with the hospital. This came to fruition when the Ludwig Institute opened at the RMH in 1980. This allowed trainee surgeons to undertake laboratory research under the auspices of the Ludwig Institute.

Professor Clunie is widely published, especially in the areas of surgical oncology, organ transplantation, immunology, general surgical research and medical education. He was appointed Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Melbourne in 1986. Concerned with quality and performance, with high standards of integrity and personal energy, his leadership and administrative skills led to his subsequent appointment in 1995 as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne. In this position he played a seminal role in the remodelling of the undergraduate curriculum and in the establishment of the Australian International Health Institute based in the Faculty.

He retired from the University in 1997, the same year as he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Medicine, and in 1998, was appointed an Emeritus Professor of Surgery of the University of Melbourne. A member of the Council of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons since 1994, he also served as Editor-in-Chief of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery. For the College, he has led AusAid funded programs including the delivery of specialist medical care and the development of postgraduate training programs to pacific island nations. In 1998, he became Senior Medical Consultant to the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria and has made major contributions to the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Australian Medical Council Accreditation Committee and has served on the boards of several medical research institutes and government advisory committees.

Prof Gordon Clunie in his office, circa 1980.

Professor Andrew Kaye

Andrew Kaye was born in Melbourne in 1950 and educated at Scotch College and the University of Melbourne, graduating in medicine in 1973 as dux of the year. His intern and residency years were undertaken mostly at The Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Royal Children's Hospital. Following completion of his neurosurgical training in Australia in 1980, he spent two years at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, England as a Senior Registrar in Neurosurgery and one year as Chief Resident in Neurosurgery at the Cleveland Clinic, USA. He then spent 1983 undertaking research at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases, Queens Square, London. On returning to Australia in 1983, he joined The Royal Melbourne Hospital as a neurosurgeon, with subsequent appointments in the University of Melbourne Department of Surgery and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research.

In 1992, he was appointed as the Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Melbourne, the first such position in Australia. In 1997, he became the James Stewart Professor of Surgery and Head of the Department of Surgery at the University of Melbourne, Royal Melbourne Hospital/Western Hospital. Concurrently, he is the Director of Neurosurgery at The Royal Melbourne Hospital, and since 2005, the Director of the Melbourne Comprehensive Cancer Centre. In addition, Professor Kaye is Chairman of the Section of Surgery at The Royal Melbourne Hospital: the body responsible for standards, education and training in surgery at the hospital.

His main research interests are related to neuro-oncology and neuropathology: initially the use of photodynamic therapy to treat cerebral glioma and, more recently, on mechanisms of brain tumour cell invasion, intracellular signalling, gene therapy treatment programs, and the development of laser therapies and new surgical techniques in the treatment of brain tumours. Other research interests include the physiology of intracranial pressure and vasospasm of cerebral arteries and cerebral ischaemia.

In 1989, he was admitted as a Doctor of Medicine by the University of Melbourne. In 1992, he was awarded the John Mitchell Crouch Fellowship by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, and in 1997, was appointed the Sir Arthur Sims Commonwealth Travelling Professor. In 2003, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons honoured him with the Ronald L. Bittner Award for his contribution to the treatment of brain tumours. He was awarded the Commonwealth of Australia Centenary Medal in 2003 and Member of the Order of Australia in 2004. Also in 2004, he presented the Sir John Eccles Lecture at the Australian Neuroscience Society. Professor Kaye was awarded the 2006 Paul Bucy Award, jointly awarded by the University of Chicago and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, for outstanding contribution to neurosurgical education. This was the first time a neurosurgeon in the southern hemisphere had been honoured with this award.

Professor Kaye holds numerous memberships of neurosurgical and medical societies including foundation membership of the World Academy of Neurological Surgeons and is a member of the World Federation of Neurological Societies. He is the foundation Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Clinical Neuroscience, was Chairman of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons Board of Neurosurgery, an Examiner in Neurosurgery, and has advised a number of government committees on health related matters. He has authored and co-authored over 150 journal articles and book chapters, as well as five books including being the co-author of ‘Brain Tumours’, a text recognised as being the definitive work on the subject.

 Professor Andrew Kaye in surgery in 2004.