Dean

Peter J Smith
RFD MD FRACP FRCPA FAICD

Professor Peter Smith graduated from the University of Queensland in Medicine and undertook specialist clinical and research training in Paediatric Haematology / Oncology in Australia, the USA and Germany. In Queensland, he held the position of Foundation Director of Oncology, Royal Children’s Hospital and Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane and was appointed Professor and Foundation Chairman of the Joint Experimental Oncology Program, newly established between the University of Queensland and the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, focused on molecular and cell biology of cancer. He co-authored the first description of an epigenetic phenomenon associated with human cancer (Nature 1993).

He moved to Melbourne in 1994 as Professor / Director of Haematology/Oncology, Royal Children’s Hospital and University of Melbourne. He assumed senior management roles in both the university and hospital sector including that of Director of the amalgamated Women’s and Children’s Hospitals pathology service. In 1997 he was appointed Stevenson Professor and Head, Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne. He was a Director on the Boards of the Murdoch Institute for Birth Defects and the Royal Children’s Hospital Research Institute and helped negotiate their merger into the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.

In October 2001 he took up the position of Dean, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland in New Zealand. He restructured the Faculty into five schools, including a new School of Population Health as a $30Million venture on a new campus. The School of Population Health incorporated integrative clusters of university, government and industry partnerships and was designed to address important national health problems and have the capacity to project solutions into the Asia-Pacific region. He was a Director on the Board of Uniservices Ltd, – the commercialisation arm of the University of Auckland.

In August 2005 Professor Smith became Dean of Medicine at The University of New South Wales, Sydney where he has led a major expansion of research infrastructure and activity including the Lowy Cancer Research Centre, a $130million capital project to accommodate 400 cancer researchers and a $120million redevelopment of the Wallace Wurth Building which will also house the Kirby Institute for Infection and Immunity in Society. Both he and UNSW Medicine have a strong commitment to the training of indigenous doctors and doctors for the rural and regional workforce. UNSW Medicine is now the leading Medical School in Australia for training Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island doctors in terms of numbers of enrolled indigenous medical students.

Professor Smith is a Director on the Board of St Vincent’s Health Australia, the Garvan Institute for Medical Research, the Arts and Health Foundation and a number of other medical research organisations.

He holds the rank of Group Captain, RAAF Specialist Reserve, was awarded the Reserve Forces Decoration and is currently Clinical Director, Health Administration and Education, Directorate of Health Reserves – Air Force.

Professor Smith has a strong commitment to the development of Academic Health Science Centres which integrate the University teaching and research functions with clinical care at hospital and community level to improve health outcomes and to improving indigenous health by training Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island doctors.