Alan Frederick Cowman

Education Cowman was awarded his Bachelor of Science (honours) from Griffith University in 1979 and received his PhD from WEHI and the University of Melbourne in 1984, with David Kemp as his supervisor. His PhD thesis involved the cattle parasite Babesia bovis: in conjunction with other students they developed cloning, immunochemical and recombinant DNA techniques to analyze the parasite. This was followed by two postdoctoral projects and further exploring the malaria parasite at WEHI. He then took up a postdoctoral position to study Drosophila at the University of California, Berkeley in 1984.

Career Cowman returned to WEHI in 1986, and concentrated his research on genes that make malaria parasites resistant to drugs. and Harvard University.

Cowman's work has been supported by a senior principal research fellowship from the NHMRC since 2018, a Wellcome Trust Australian senior research fellowship in 1988, then by three successive international research scholarships from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He held an Australia fellowship from 2007 to 2012.

His research focus has been on protozoan infections, in particular the cause of malaria (Plasmodium falciparum), which kill over 400,000 people each year world-wide. He made significant advances in understanding the molecular mechanisms which the malaria parasites use to take over human cells, and how they evade the body's natural defenses. He found that once malaria parasites take over human red blood cells, and remodels them so they can reproduce without triggering the patient's immune system. He also investigated how the parasites build resistance to antimalarial drugs. while Scopus gave it as 91.

Honours and awards 1993 Gottschalk Medal for Medical Science and Biology from the Australian Academy of Science 1994 ASBMB Boehringer-Mannheim Medal 2001 Centenary Medal awarded by the Australian government 2001 Fellow, Australian Academy of Science 2010 Howard Taylor Ricketts Medal from the University of Chicago 2010 Glaxo-Wellcome Australia Medal 2014 Award for Research Excellence from the Federation of Asian and Oceanian Biochemists and Molecular Biologists 2016 Wellcome Trust grant for development of antimalarial drugs with Merck & Co., Inc. 2016 Research Excellence Award from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) recognising outstanding performance and excellence in health and medical research innovation. 2019 Fellow, Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (FAHMS) 2019 Companion of the Order of Australia 2020 Corresponding Fellow, The Royal Society (Edinburgh)

Professional activities

Professional societies

Australia Society for Parasitology

Australian Society for Microbiology

Australian Academy of Science

The Royal Society (United Kingdom)

Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB)

Selected international and national committees

2010–14 president, World Federation of Parasitologists

2010, 2015, 2020 member, quinquennial review committee, Welcome Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK

2013 chair, 'Target identification for malaria drug discovery' Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation 2013-

2013-2022 member, appointments and promotion committee QIMR Berghofer, Queensland, Australia

2014 fellow appointment panel, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Washington, USA

2015 Malaria Eradication Scientific Alliance, chair of working group, Boston, USA