Vera Ignjatović AM
Game changer: Meet the accidental Olympian who revolutionised paediatric medicine
15 January 2026
Global Executive MBA alum Dr Vera Ignjatović, AM, challenged long-held assumptions about children’s health – and changed global standards of care.
When Dr Vera Ignjatović migrated from Serbia with her family at the age of 13, she had no clear career plan and almost no English.
What she did have was an aptitude for science. Just three years later, she was enrolled in a Bachelor of Science at Monash University.
However, while maths, chemistry, and biology came easily, formal written exams did not.
“I came from an environment where most assessments were oral, as in standing in front of the class and answering questions, so I struggled to settle into written examinations,” Dr Ignjatović said.
Even without top marks, her potential was unmistakable to one lecturer, who supported her path into Honours and then a PhD.
“That experience taught me that grades are not everything; aptitude, ambition, and having the right people behind you matter enormously,” she said.
Now a pioneer in paediatric medical research, Dr Ignjatovic was in 2025 honoured with a Professional Achievement Award at the Monash Business School Dean’s Alumni Awards.
Mapping the unknown
After graduating, Dr Ignjatović spent eight deflating months job hunting, until a small ad for a research assistant at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute caught her eye.
The job proved to be a turning point that would reshape global paediatric medicine.
She quickly realised that children’s physiology was dangerously understudied.
Clinicians were comparing children’s test results to adult reference ranges because there was no normative data for healthy children.
“We genuinely didn’t know what a healthy child looked like physiologically, and their blood test results were often compared to adult values - which of course led to misdiagnoses,” she said.
“Children are not just little adults; they are inherently different."
Her pioneering work establishing paediatric reference ranges now underpins diagnostics worldwide, and her research into how medications affect children has influenced global mandates for paediatric trials.
During her career, Dr Ignjatović has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers, supervised over 40 research candidates, and served on many boards, including the Toyota Community Trust, Australian Society of Medical Research, and the BioMelbourne Network.
In 2025, she received the Monash Business School Dean’s Professional Achievement Award, and was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia, recognising her contributions to paediatric medicine, proteomics, the promotion of STEM to underrepresented populations, and mentoring.
Lessons from the court
If Dr Ignjatović’s career in paediatrics began by chance, so too did her Olympic one.
In Serbia, handball is a popular sport taught in schools, which she had been playing since the age of 12.
“When I discovered handball was also played in Australia, I decided to go along to a training session just to see what it was like, but I didn’t tell anyone I was a goalkeeper,” she said.
Then fate intervened: the team’s keeper rolled her ankle.
Two weeks later, Dr Ignjatović was invited to a national training camp.
Over the next four years, she travelled across Europe to train and compete – while still completing her PhD – and by 2000, she was representing Australia at the Sydney Olympics.
“Being an athlete has had a huge impact on my career,” she said.
“The mindset stays with you: never shy away from a challenge, always put your hand up, if there is a job that needs doing, do it.”
Leading beyond the lab
After two decades of one-year research contracts – a common scenario for researchers in Australia – Dr Ignjatović recognised a tightening of federal funding and a need to expand her leadership skills.
She found a brochure for a Monash Business School women-in-leadership course and, encouraged to apply, received a scholarship and enrolled.
Toward the end of that program, she learned about the Global Executive MBA and realised it was the logical next step.
Supported by a “village of colleagues, mentors, friends, and family”, she completed the GEMBA in 2020.
Dr Ignjatović said the program taught her how to communicate complex science to a broader audience and connected her with peers from multiple industries, expanding her perspective far beyond the lab.
“Academia often works from the inside out – this is what I want to do – whereas business starts with the customer: who are they and how do we serve them, what is our value proposition, who are the stakeholders?” she said.
“The GEMBA showed me how my skills could translate beyond a traditional research setting and reinforced that business and science together are more powerful than either alone.”