Speakers

Keynote Speakers

Emeritus Scientia Professor Eugenie R Lumbers, MDBS, DSc, FAA, FRSN, AM

Professor Lumbers graduated MBBS from University of Adelaide and was subsequently awarded a Doctorate in Medicine from that university. She was the first woman to be awarded a CJ Martin Fellowship by the NMHRC and studied fetal physiology at the Nuffield Institute for Medical Research in Oxford. She established her own laboratory at UNSW 1974 and has been funded over the years by ARC, NHMRC, AKF and NHF (NHMRC supported from 1975 onwards).
In 1993 Professor Lumbers served on the Prime Minister’s Advisory Committee for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology. She has also served on numerous Scientific and Advisory panels for the NHMRC, the NZ Health Research Council, the National Heart Foundation and Australian Research Council and been involved in the accreditation of medical schools by the Australian Medical Council. Eugenie was an elected member of the Council of the UNSW for 10 years, a board member of the NSW Division of the National Heart Foundation, and of ANZCCART (Australian New Zealand Committee for the Care of Animals in research and Teaching). Currently she is on the scientific advisory board of a biotech company, VECTUS biosystems.
In 1999, Professor Lumbers became one of UNSW’s inaugural Scientia Professors and the first woman Scientia Professor at UNSW. In 1992 she was awarded a Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence. In 2002 she was elected to the Australian Academy of Science and received the Centenary Medal of Federation. In 2010 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of NSW.
Professor Lumbers retired in 2003 and returned to research in 2006. She holds a fractional professorial position at University of Newcastle and conjoint positions at UNSW and University of Queensland. Currently she holds NHMRC grants at the University of Newcastle on the impact of maternal stress on renal development and infant development and she is CIC on an NHMRC grant at University of Queensland on low systemic blood flow in the newborn.
Her research has been broad based as she has studied both cardiovascular and fluid and electrolyte physiology in adult non-pregnant and pregnant animals, in the fetus and in the newborn. She has been particularly interested in the role and actions of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS), and has carried out human and animal experiments. She discovered inactive (prorenin) and, with Brian Morris, showed that it was activated by proteases. She has used the chronically catheterized pregnant ewe and her fetus as a model for studying fetal physiology. Most of her work relates to the development of the cardiovascular system and kidney including development of neural control of the circulation and programming. She has also worked in fetal gene therapy.
Professor Lumbers current interests are related to the role(s) of the renin-angiotensin system in human placentation and in pregnancy associated hypertension as well programming of renal disease in animal and human populations and in the role of cardiac function in preterm neonatal hypotension. She is also studying the repositioning of drugs that block the reninangiotensin system as potential anticancer drugs. She is married to William Forbes and has three children and five grandchildren.

Professor Caroline McMillen

Professor McMillen graduated with a BA (Hons) and Doctor of Philosophy at Oxford University before completing her medical degree at the University of Cambridge. She moved to Australia to take up a Lectureship at Monash University, and was appointed as Chair and Head of Physiology at the University of Adelaide in 1992. She served as Dean of the Faculty of Science and as Director of the Research Centre for the Early Origins of Adult Disease at the University of Adelaide and was appointed as Pro/Deputy Vice Chancellor Research and Innovation at the University of South Australia (UniSA) in 2005.
She was appointed Vice Chancellor at the University of Newcastle in New South Wales in late 2011. Professor McMillen has an international reputation as a biomedical and health researcher for her work which focuses on developmental physiology the early origins of cardiovascular and metabolic health. Her research has been continuously supported by the Australian Research Council and National Health and Medical Research Council for over 20 years and she has been invited to present plenary or symposia presentations at more than 70 international and national meetings. She has published around 200 research articles (book chapters and journal papers), her work has been cited more than 4,100 times and she was ranked in the top 1% of all Web of Science authors for the last decade in the subject area of Biology and Biochemistry. Professor McMillen has supervised more than 50 PhD and Honours students and her students have been successful in attracting prestigious Training Awards and Fellowships and in their careers across the spectrum of medicine, health, veterinary science, science and business.
Professor McMillen has served for extended periods as Chair of the ARC Biological Sciences Panel, NHMRC Grant Review Panels and as a Chair or member of the NHMRC Enabling Grants Committee, the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Scheme Expert Sub Committee on Promoting and Maintaining Good Health and on the Prime Ministers Science Innovation and Engineering Council Working Group on Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander health focussing on maternal, fetal and post-natal health. She is a member of the Council of the International Union of Physiological Societies (IUPS) and is the Chair of the IUPS Endocrinology, Reproduction and Development Commission. Professor McMillen has served on the on a range of academic review and accreditation groups and on State and national Councils, Boards and Advisory Groups in areas relating to science, industry and innovation including the Premiers Climate Change Council, the Manufacturing Consultative Committee and Resources Industry Development Board in South Australia and the Board of the Cooperative Research Centre for Advanced Automotive Technology and the Australian Automotive Industry Innovation Council.

Confirmed speakers include

• Prof Kent Thornburg, USA
• Dr Sue Ozanne, UK
• Prof Dino Giussani, UK
• Prof Sandra Davidge, Can
• Prof Euan Wallace, Aus
• Prof Laura Bennet, NZ
• Prof Marelyn Wintour, Aus
• Prof Michael Symonds, UK