Eric Chow awarded Frank Fenner Award for Advanced Research in Infectious Diseases
A/Prof Eric Chow receiving the 2023 Frank Fenner Award from ASID President Prof Katie Flanagan
Congratulations to Associate Professor Eric Chow for receiving the 2023 Frank Fenner Award for Advanced Research in Infectious Diseases from the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases. The prestigious award recognises his work on gonorrhoea, syphilis and human papillomavirus.
Named after Professor Frank Fenner, an Australian pioneer of viral research, the award is the peak research award from ASID. It is awarded annually based on a portfolio of original research in infectious diseases.
A/Prof Chow is the Head of the Health Data Management and Biostatistics Unit at the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre (Alfred Health) and Associate Professor at Monash University’s Central Clinical School.
His research aims to improve the treatment, prevention and control of sexually transmitted diseases (STIs), with a particular focus on gonorrhoea and human papillomavirus (HPV). This research program has identified kissing as the risk factor for throat gonorrhoea transmission, revealing that the throat is the main driver of transmission. This opens opportunities for exploring novel prevention and intervention strategies targeting the throat (e.g. mouthwash).
Presenting the Award to A/Prof Chow at the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases (ASID) Annual Scientific Meeting, ASID President Professor Katie Flanagan said he was a worthy recipient: “This award recognises and highlights the importance of Associate Professor Chow’s STI research as well as the quality and innovation of his work, [which] has the potential to reduce the burden of sexually transmitted infections and also to improve the lives of affected individuals.”
A/Prof Chow’s work has also shown that men, as well as women, benefit from HPV vaccination. He discovered that the male HPV vaccination program in Australia has led to a 70% fall in the throat and anal oncogenic types HPV16, which can potentially reduce throat and anal cancer incidence in men.
“I’m extremely honoured and humbled to have received the 2023 Frank Fenner Award for Advanced Research in Infectious Diseases,” A/Prof Chow said. “This award recognises the importance of our work on preventing and controlling sexually transmitted infections in Australia. Research is like a puzzle. Our work is building up by making mistakes, trying new things and thinking outside the box, so that we can see the full picture to find solutions.”
About Monash University
Monash University is Australia’s largest university with more than 80,000 students. In the 60 years since its foundation, it has developed a reputation for world-leading high-impact research, quality teaching, and inspiring innovation.
With four campuses in Australia and a presence in Malaysia, China, India, Indonesia and Italy, it is one of the most internationalised Australian universities.
As a leading international medical research university with the largest medical faculty in Australia and integration with leading Australian teaching hospitals, we consistently rank in the top 50 universities worldwide for clinical, pre-clinical and health sciences.
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