A world–renowned expert in the control and elimination of infectious diseases, he has held senior academic leadership positions in higher education and health–service settings, including Pro Vice–Chancellor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Curtin University in Western Australia.
He was also Director of the Research School of Population Health and Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra.
A strong supporter of interdisciplinary research, he completed a Bachelor of Veterinary Science degree from the University of Sydney before undertaking a PhD at the Royal Veterinary College, University of London. He then began his research career into parasitic, viral and bacterial diseases, particularly tropical illnesses, at Imperial College London.