Professor Sharon Lewin AO
Professor Sharon Lewin is an infectious diseases physician and basic scientist, who is internationally renowned for her research into all aspects of HIV disease and specifically in strategies to achieve an HIV cure. She received her medical degree (1986) and PhD (1997) from Monash University, Melbourne, Australia and post-doctoral training at Rockefeller University, New York (1997-1999). She is the inaugural Director of the Doherty Institute, a joint venture of the University of Melbourne and Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne Laureate Professor of Medicine and Head, Department of Infectious Disease at the University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia. She is also the inaugural director of the Cumming Global Centre for Pandemic Therapeutics, a new centre at the Doherty Institute established by a philanthropic gift of $250 million from Canadian philanthropist Geoff Cumming and $75 million from the Victorian government.
Professor Lewin heads a laboratory of 25 scientists and clinicians working on basic and translational research and early phase clinical trials aimed at finding a cure for HIV and novel therapeutics for SARS-CoV2 and related viruses. She has published over 350 papers and is a Clarivate hi-citation researcher since 2019. She has received continuous funding from the NHMRC since 1993 and from multiple international funding agencies including the National Institute for Health, the American Foundation for AIDS Research and the Wellcome Trust. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in recognition of her distinguished service to medical research, and to education and clinical care, in the field of infectious diseases, particularly HIV and AIDS.
She has played a major role globally in advocacy for people with HIV in relation to access to treatment and prevention strategies, as well as the importance of finding a cure and funding the Science to achieve this goal. She was the elected President of the International AIDS Society (2022-2024), the largest professional society representing people working in HIV medicine and has over 17,000 members. She co-chairs the Toward a Cure initiative of the IAS. She also played a major role in advising both the Victorian and Australian governments on the response to COVID-19 which included co-chairing the National COVID Health and Research Advisory Committee. The Doherty Institute were the first to isolate SARS-CoV2 outside of China and share it globally in January 2020. The institute continues major programs in developing clinical trials, diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines for pathogens of pandemic potential.
She continues to advise institutions, international funding agencies and governments in relation to HIV and pandemic preparedness including the French and Singapore governments as well as institutions in the United States, Cambodia and Germany. She holds honorary doctorates from Latrobe University, Aarhus University (Denmark) and the University of Bonn (Germany).
She is married to Bob, a lawyer, and has two sons, Alex and Max.