Professor Michael Abramson MB BS, PhD, FRACP, FAFPHM, Deputy Head of the Department of Epidemiology & Preventive Medicine
Michael is also visiting medical officer in allergy, immunology and respiratory medicine at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne. His current research program covers the epidemiology of chronic lung diseases, including environmental risk factors such as air pollution. He was a member of the Scientific Committees for the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology conference in Perth, the International Symposium on Epidemiology in Occupational Health and the forthcoming conference of the Australasian Epidemiological Association.

Professor Peter Sly
Professor Sly completed his medical training and MD at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He was awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Canadian MRC and spent two years working in Respiratory Physiology at the Meakins-Christie Laboratories, McGill University, Montreal. Upon his return to the Department of Thoracic Medicine, Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, he established a model for partitioning lung mechanics into airway and parenchymal compartments in puppies. This has lead to the development of new non-invasive techniques for measuring the mechanical properties of airways and lung parenchyma in small laboratory animals (rats and mice) and in human infants. In 1991 Prof Sly moved to the Telethon Institute of Child Health Research in Western Australia to set up the Division of Clinical Sciences. He is currently the Head, Division of Clinical Sciences, Telethon Institute of Child Health Research, Professorial Fellow and Postgraduate Student Coordinator, Department of Paediatrics, University of Western Australia, Senior Principle Research Fellow, National Health & Medical Council and Respiratory Physician, Princess Margaret Hospital for Children.

Dr Robert Heddle
Robert is well known for his work in the area of clinical immunology. Robert completed his M.B.,B.S. in 1970 and his Ph.D in 1978. He has worked in the public sector and has had his own private practice in the area of allergy. He is currently the Director of Allergy at Flinders Medical Centre. He has held this position since 1997. Robert has a strong research background and interest in anaphylaxis, especially in regard to stinging insect allergy and drug allergy. Robert is well published in the area of allergy and anaphylaxis.

Dr Sandra Anderson
Dr Anderson trained to be a Respiratory Physiologist at the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the University of California, San Francisco. In 1972 she received a Doctorate of Philosophy, (Medicine) for her thesis from the University of London on: The Physiological Aspects of Exercise-Induced Bronchoconstriction – an area in which she would become a world authority. In 1990 Dr Anderson earned a second Doctorate, also from the University of London this time a Doctorate of Science (Medicine) after examination of her research publications in the field of Respiratory Physiology. In 1995 she became one of the first people to be Certified as a Respiratory Function Scientist through examination by the Australian and New Zealand Society of Respiratory.

Associate Professor Guy Marks
Assoc Prof Marks is Head of the Epidemiology Group at the Woolcock Institute of Respiratory Medicine, Director of the Australian Centre for Asthma Monitoring (a collaborating unit of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare), Head of Respiratory Medicine at Liverpool Hospital, Sydney and a project leader in the CRC for Asthma. His research encompasses many aspects of asthma: prevalence, risk factors, allergens and other environmental exposures, prevention, treatment and disease impact on quality of life. He is an investigator in the Childhood Asthma Prevention Study and the Belmont asthma studies, among others.

Dr Karl Kruszelnicki
Karl used to be a “proper pukka scientist, engineer and doctor”, but is currently an author and science commentator on radio and television. He is the Julius Sumner Miller Fellow at the University of Sydney, in the Science Foundation of the Physics Department. In addition to his degrees in Physics and Mathematics, Biomedical Engineering, and Medicine and Surgery, he has studied several non-degree years at various universities in Astrophysics, Computer Science and Philosophy. In the media, he was a writer and presenter for the first series of Quantum, and has been a science reporter on TV ever since (The Midday Show, Good Morning Australia, and is currently a regular on Channel 7’s Sunrise). In radio, he speaks on-air for about 4 hours every week. This includes a national weekly, 1 hour science talkback show on Triple J - which attracts up to 300,000 people (about 1.5% of the Australian population). This show sometimes “crashes” the switchboard, when the number of incoming calls reaches 7,000 per 15 minute window.
Dr Karl Kruszelnicki appears by arrangement with Claxton Speakers International.

Dorinda Hafner
Ghanaian born Dorinda Hafner is larger than life. She is a TV presenter, writer, foodie, actor/comedienne, public speaker and happening ‘thang’. She is full of ‘sass and sauce’ and quite impossible to categorise. Dorinda is intelligent, multifaceted, talented and colourful. She’s a kaleidoscope of vibrancy and the queen of stage and skillet. Dorinda authored seven books and, she is “The Face” of The Adelaide Central Market as well as Food and Tourism ambassador for Food SA and SA Department of Tourism.