John Gerrard

Career Gerrard was born in 1960 and attended medical school at the University of Sydney, studying a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery. Dr Gerrard had attended the medical school together with former Chief Health Officer of Queensland, Jeannette Young. After graduating, Gerrard worked as a doctor at the Royal Prince Alfred in Sydney. Gerrard has spent many years researching infectious diseases and vaccine developments. He identified the nation's first known person with AIDS, 12 years after the patient died of a "mystery" pneumonia, which proved HIV was in Australia from February 1981. Gerrard also helped to deal with an Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014.

Personal life At the age of 6, Gerrard's brother, Steven, aged 11, died of H3N2 influenza. Gerrard is married and has two daughters.