Current as of 20/05/2023

Judith Whitworth is an Emeritus Professor of The Australian National University. She graduated MBBS from the University of Melbourne in 1967, MD in 1974, PhD in 1978 and DSc in 1992. She holds honorary degrees from The University of Sydney (MD), the University of New South Wales (MD), the University of Glasgow (DSc), Charles Darwin University (DLett), and the University of Melbourne (LLD).

 

 Professor Whitworth is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, and the Australian Institute of Company Directors, an honorary fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, and a Fellow of Janet Clark Hall, University of Melbourne.

 

 She has practiced medicine and researched extensively in Australia and overseas; she was formerly Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer of Australia, and leader of the Australian Delegation, World Health Assembly. She chaired the Medical Research Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia from 1994-7. She is a Past-President of the Australian Society for Medical Research, and the High Blood Pressure Research Council of Australia. She was Chair of the WHO Global Advisory Committee on Health Research from 2004-2011.

 

 

She has been Professor of Medicine at St George Hospital, University of New South Wales, and Director of the John Curtin School of Medical Research, Convenor of the ANU College of Medicine and Health Sciences and Howard Florey Professor of Medical Research at the Australian National University in Canberra. Professor Whitworth was an Ambassador for Canberra and an Ambassador for Women. She co-chaired the NSW Health Care advisory Council from 2007-11.

 

She was made a Companion in the Order of Australia in 2001, for the advancement of academic medicine and as a major contributor to research policy and medical research administration in Australia and internationally, and was also a recipient of the Centenary Medal.  Other awards include the International Society of Hypertension Smith, Kline and French Award, the Florey Medal, the Royal Australian College of Physicians Medal, the Arthur E Mills Memorial Oration Medal, the Mathison Oration Medal, the Kincaid-Smith Medal, the Curtin Medal and the William Upjohn Medal. She is a Life Member of The Australian and New Zealand Society of Nephrology and a Distinguished Member, International Society Hypertension, as well as a recipient of their Women in Hypertension award. She has been Telstra ACT Business Woman of the Year, was featured in the UNIFEM Australia photographic exhibition Powerful Women ,and named in Great Minds in Australian Research by NHMRC. ANU has named a fellowship for women in science the Judith Whitworth Fellowship, and her old school, St Michaels GS has named a science scholarship after her.

 

Prof Whitworth was ACT Australian of the Year in 2004.

 

She has authored six books and over 500 scientific articles.

 

Current appointments:

 

·    Chair, ANZ Clinical Trial Registry Advisory Committee

 

·    Trustee, Foundation for High Blood Pressure Research

·    Visiting Fellow, John Curtin School, Australian National University

·    Director, Therapeutic Innovation Australia

·    Member, Governance Committee, Sax Institute                                                  

                  

She is a member of the Melbourne Cricket Club, the Lord’s Taverners and the Athenaeum (London).      

Professor Whitworth holds key international positions that influence research globally, notably through her chairmanship of the WHO Global Advisory Committee on Health Research. As Director of one of Australia's leading research institutes (JCSMR) she has re-shaped its staffing and research profiles to ensure it maintains internationally-influential research, focussed its research on underpinning better health care and been instrumental in securing a new, modern facilities for JCSMR. She has served the community as Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer and in other leadership roles at national, state and international levels in which she has encouraged interaction between researchers, end users and policy makers.