Person
Shellam, Geoffrey Randolph (1943 - 2015)
- Born
- 12 August 1943
Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, Australia - Died
- 2 July 2015
Perth, Western Australia, Australia - Occupation
- Immunologist and Microbiologist
Summary
Geoffrey Shellam was best known for his contribution to the biology of cytomegalovirus, particularly the role of that natural killer (NK) cells play in the control of this virus. With collaborators he showed the association between NK activity and resistance to viral infection. He had a career-long engagement with this virus. His work on the immunobiology and genetic resistance murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV) was widely acknowledged as a major contribution to virology and immunology. The work of his team was seminal in providing the basis for dissecting and delineating many areas of virus-host interaction, including the contribution of host resistance to infection outcome. His teaching involved all aspects of infectious diseases including virology, microbiology, immunology, molecular biology and public health. Shellam also made contributions to the study of infectious diseases in Antarctic wildlife.
Details
Chronology
- 1968
- Education - PhD, University of Melbourne
- 1969 - 1972
- Career position - Biochemist, Commonwealth Serum Laboratories
- 1972 - 1976
- Career position - Horace Le Marquand and Dudley Bigg Fellowship, Royal Society London
- 1976
- Career position - Eleanor Roosevelt International Cander Fellow, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.A.
- 1977
- Career position - Post-doctoral Fellow, Microbiology Department, University of Western Australia
- 1983 - 1985
- Career position - Principal Research Fellow, National Health and Medical Research Council
- 1985 - 2015
- Career position - Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Western Australia
- 1991 - 1992
- Career position - President, Australian Society for Immunology
- 1991 - 2006
- Career position - Chair, Advisory Committee, UWA Press
- 1992 - 1994
- Career position - Member, National Committee on Microbiology
- 1992 - 1995
- Career position - Member, National Committee for Immunology
- 1992 - 1998
- Career position - Councillor, International Union of Immunological Societies
- 1994 - 1996
- Career position - Member, Commonwealth AIDS Research Grants Committee
- 1995
- Award - Distinguished Service Award, Australasian Society for Immunology
- 1997 - 1999
- Career position - Member, Research Advisory Committee, Australian National Council on AIDS and Related Diseases
- 2007 - 2015
- Career position - Co-Director, The Marshall Centre for Infectious Diseases Research and Training
- 2012 - 2015
- Award - Life Member, Australasian Society for Immunology
Related entries
Wife
Published resources
Journal Articles
- Cunningham, Tony; Mackenzie, John; Nossal, Gustav; and Rawlinson, William, 'Obituary: Professor Geoffrey Randolph Shellam', Microbiology Australia, 2015 (November) (2015), 200-1. Details
- Redwood, Alec, Lloyd, Megan, Allan, Jane and Scalzo, Tony, 'Geoff Shellam (1942 - 2015)', Immunology and Cell Biology, 93 (2015), 765-6. Details
- Shellam, Geoffrey R., 'The Australian Society for Immunology in the 1990s and beyond', Immunology and Cell Biology, 69 (5) (1991), 323-325. Details
Newspaper Articles
- Brown, Jen Jewel, 'Backpacker became gentleman scientist who scaled the heights of immunological research', The Age (2015), 44. Details
Resources
- 'Shellam, Geoffrey Randolph (19430812-20150702)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1708157. Details
Helen Cohn
Last modified: 5 December 2016