Chris Goodnow

Christopher Carl Goodnow (born 19 September 1959) is an immunology researcher and the current executive director of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research. He holds the Bill and Patricia Ritchie Foundation Chair and is a Conjoint Professor in the faculty of medicine at UNSW Sydney. He holds dual Australian and US citizenship.

Career Born in Hong Kong in 1959 to Robert Goodnow and Jacqueline J. Goodnow AC, Goodnow grew up in Rome and Washington DC before moving to Sydney, Australia as a teenager. He trained in veterinary medicine and surgery, immunochemistry and immunology at the University of Sydney and in DNA technology at Stanford University. After doctoral studies at Melbourne's Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and the University of Sydney, he joined the faculty of the Stanford University Medical School and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 1990. There he established the concept of multiple immune tolerance checkpoints, a framework now widely used in cancer treatment with "checkpoint inhibitors", and revealed the function of key genes in these checkpoints.

In 1997 Goodnow joined the faculty at the Australian National University as professor and founding director of the Medical Genome Centre, leading its development into a major national research facility, the Australian Phenomics Facility. In 2015 he joined the Garvan Institute of Medical Research as deputy director to translate genomic DNA sequence analysis of the human immune system into understanding the cause of immune disorders and developing more effective, personalised treatments. the only multidisciplinary centre of its kind in the southern hemisphere as well as playing a key role in the development of the Clinical Immunogenomics Research Consortium Australia (CIRCA). In May 2018, Goodnow was named Executive Director of the Garvan Institute.

Honours 1979: John Gurner and Frederick Ebsworth Prize for Biology, University of Sydney 1984: Honours Class I with B.V.Sc. degree; Honours Class I and University Medal with B.Sc.(Vet) degree 1986: National Health and Medical Research Council Biomedical Research Scholarship 1989: Medical Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship 1992-95: Searle Scholar 1998: American Association of Immunologists/Pharmingen Investigator Award 2001: Centenary Medal for services to Australian society and science in systems and control theory 2001: Australian Academy of Science Gottschalk Medal 2002: Elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science 2005: Australian Health Ministers Award for Excellence in Health and Medical Research 2006: Australian Research Council Federation Fellow 2006: American Association of Immunologists Distinguished Lecturer 2007: Ramaciotti Biomedical Research Award 2009: Elected a Fellow of The Royal Society, the UK and British Commonwealth academy of science (confirmed 2009-05-15 ) 2010: Australasian Society for Immunology Burnet Orator 2010: National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia Fellow 2010: Ramaciotti Medal for Excellence in Biomedical Research 2013: Elected Member of the US National Academy of Sciences 2015-2016: President of the Australasian Society for Immunology 2025: Crafoord Prize in Polyarthritis.

Other interests Goodnow is well known for leading a 1980 expedition to Indonesia's remote Mentawai Islands off the coast of Sumatra, discovering the now-famous surf breaks and a wave that is today considered one of the world's best, Macaronis.

External Biography - Australian National University Australian Phenomics Facility