David Burke

David James Burke (born 11 May 1944) is an Australian neurologist and clinical neurophysiologist. He has held senior positions at the Prince of Wales Hospital, University of New South Wales and University of Sydney. which was renamed Neuroscience Research Australia in 2010. His career has included a focus on the role of spinal cord circuits in the control of movement, the excitability of peripheral nerve axons in health and disease, and other areas of clinical neurophysiology. attended primary school at Trundle Central School and secondary school at Sydney Grammar School (1956–1960), as a boarder at "School House" in Randwick. He studied medicine at the University of Sydney (1961–1966), graduating MB BS in 1967.

Postgraduate career Burke was inspired to undertake medical research and then to pursue a career in neurology by Professor James W. Lance, AO, CBE, and studied at The Prince Henry Hospital under his guidance. After completing the MD by research, he became a medical registrar at Prince Henry, and passed the examinations of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (awarded MRACP in 1972 and FRACP in 1975). In 1975, he went to Sweden on a C.J. Martin Travelling Fellowship from the National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC) to undertake postdoctoral research with Professor Karl-Erik Hagbarth in Uppsala (1975–1976), where he mastered the then-novel technique, microneurography. He returned to Prince Henry for the third year of the Fellowship in 1977, and then became a Senior Research Fellow of the NHMRC. Burke led one of the two teams that came together to form the institute, and served as Director of Clinical Research, with the executive director of the institute, Professor D.I. McCloskey. and provided clinical neurophysiology services at the hospital. In 2008, on the retirement of Professor J.D. Pollard he was appointed to the Bushell Chair of Neurology at the University of Sydney and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, and continued in university administration for Sydney Medical School as Associate Dean (Research). In 2013 he stepped down from these roles into a fractional appointment, and retired at the beginning of 2020. His other major area involved the determinants of axonal excitability and the disturbances that underlie the ectopic activity of axons that is responsible for paraesthesiae and fasciculation, and for conduction block in damaged axons, major collaborators being Professor Hugh Bostock, FRS (UCL Institute of Neurology, London) and Professor Matthew Kiernan (Burke's successor to the Bushell Chair of Neurology at the University of Sydney).

Awards and honours Burke was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the 1999 Australia Day Honours "for service to science and medicine, particularly in the field of clinical neurophysiology in the areas of research and education, and to the community through medical charities and lay organisations". In 2001, he received the Centenary Medal of Federation from the Australian Government for service to Australian society and science in neurology. In the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours, Burke was made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) "for eminent service to neurophysiology, to innovative treatments for spinal cord and brain trauma injuries, and to professional medical organisations".