Carlton Conversations with Peter Doherty

The Carlton Residents Association (CRA) holds the Conversations, talks by interesting people, who are usually associated with Carlton.

In March, Laureate Professor Peter Doherty AO will give a talk titled “The Challenges Facing Us”.

Peter Doherty is well known to many for his outstanding work in medical research and for his work as an immunologist for which he received a Nobel Prize. The 1996 award was made for his research together with Rolf Zinkernagel in the field of physiology and medicine.

In 1973 they discovered how the human immune system recognises virus-ridden cells. They established how T-cells (some of the white blood cells) can potentially kill virus-ridden cells if they can recognise foreign substances, viruses and certain other substances from the body’s own cells.

A well as being a Nobel Laureate he has recently been made a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences; a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences; and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Victoria. He also received an AO and was Australian of the Year in 1997.

He is a patron of the Carlton-based Peter Doherty Institute, which has undertaken significant research during the COVID pandemic.

His several books highlight the wide range of his interests, including:

The Beginner’s Guide to Winning a Nobel Prize

An Insider’s Plague Year

A Light History of Hot Air

The Incidental Tourist: on the road with a globetrotting Nobel Prize winner

The Knowledge Wars

Pandemics

Sentinal chickens: what everyone needs to know, and recently, Empire, War, Tennis and Me

Each year he spends three months conducting research at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, USA, and is a faculty member at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center. For nine months he works in the department of Microbiology and Immunology at The University of Melbourne.

Conversations will be at 6.30 pm on Monday, March 13 at The Clyde Hotel, corner of Cardigan and Elgin streets, Carlton.

Don’t miss this special evening: CRA Conversations “The Challenges Facing Us”. •