- Edgar Thomson, began his pathology career in 1929 in NZ, becoming an RACP foundation fellow in 1938. He had a strong commitment to transfusion medicine and was a founding member of the NSW BTS Committee in World War
- He completed active service in 1946 as lieutenant colonel, having worked as a pathologist and as assistant director of hygiene, pathology and entomology at Land Headquarters. He became an honorary surgeon to HM the Queen and honorary colonel of the RAAMC on discharge.
- He was appointed Director of Pathology Services at RPAH, Sydney and chairman of the new National BTS Committee in 1947. He was foundation president of the RCPA in 1956, becoming an honorary fellow in 1969 and was the foundation president of ASBT in 1964.
- He was very active in the Australian Hospital Association, Australian Medical Association and Postgraduate Committee in Medical Education at the University of Sydney
- Eric Shaw became a pathologist in 1942, officer in charge of the 103rd Australian Mobile Laboratory, in northern W.A where he studied the treatment of shock using albumin. On discharge in 1945, he was appointed the first fulltime director of Queensland BTS and member of the National BTS Committee. He wasconsultant director of the PNG BTS and part-time lecturer at the University of Queensland.Eric was a foundation member of RCPA in 1956 and fellow of ISH in 1960. He attended the combined ISH/ISBT congress in Mexico City in 1962, where with Peter Brain and Carl de Gruchy, was able to persuade both councils to allow Australia to host their 1966 Conjoint Congress in Sydney.
- Shaw with Edgar Thomson, Bob Walsh and others founded the ASBT in 1964, served as President from 1968 to 1970 and was ISBT Australian and Oceania councillor from 1969 to 1975.
- Jack Morris was the first assistant director of the Red Cross BTS in Melbourne, the first fully paid position of its type in the Australian Red Cross. He was Director from 1954 to 1988. He implemented the more sensitive papain cross match technique in the BTS laboratory
- Morris was a consultant transfusionist, a fellow of the RCPA, a fellow of the RACMA and President of the ASBT from 1970 to 1971, He was also a WHO consultant and chairman of a taskforce of the ISBT. He was a fellow of the AIM and of the RCPath (UK). He retired in 1994. He was described as “a clear thinker on the many contentious issues in Blood Transfusion in the terrible days of HIV and Hepatitis B and C.”
- Gordon Archer began his career as a pathology registrar under Edgar Thomson in 1954. He commenced working at the blood bank in 1957 where he studied the phagocytosis of antibody coated red cells by eosinophils and the relationship between white cells and allergy. His research commitment resulted in his election as President of the Australian Society of Medical Research in 1965.
- He was appointed as secretary-general pf the XIth Congress of the ISBT held in Sydney in 1966. Following the great success of the congress Gordon was appointed as director of the NSW BTS in 1967. Gordon became a fellow of the RCPA and was made a fellow of the RACP. He served on national committees for standards for blood transfusion giving sets and blood bank refrigeration.
- The most important period of Gordon’s career was the management of the effects of the AIDS epidemic on blood donation.
- He was a Foundation member of the Society and served as President from 1973-74. He was active within the ISBT culminating in becoming President in 1989, the first Australian so honoured. He was made an AO for services especially to blood transfusion services in 1991.
- Peter graduated from Sydney University with BSc( Med) and MB BS degrees (in 1957 and 1959 respectively) and obtained a PhD from ANU in 1965. He joined CSL in 1965 and held positions of Chief of Research, R & D Director and Medical Director of the Bioplasma Division over a 34 year career with the company. His contribution was recognised in 1999 by the establishment of the Peter Schiff Award.
- For over 30 years he represented CSL on the National Blood Transfusion Committee. He was also appointed to the Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts on Blood Transfusion and Immunohaematology. Peter started donating blood, and later plasma, from 1953. When retired from active service in 2016 he had given 663 donations.
- Kevin Rickard began his career in haematology at St Vincent’s hospital Melbourne before moving overseas to work at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in London and St Elisabeth’s Hospital and Tufts University in Boston USA.
- Moving back to Australia, He was appointed as a specialist at the Royal Prince Alfred hospital in Sydney. In 1986, following many years of advocacy, he founded the Haemophilia Centre at the RPAH, Sydney. This Centre remains the focus of adult haemophilia care in NSW and is recognised worldwide as a World Federation of Haemophilia International Training Centre. He was a clinical associate professor of medicine of the University of Sydney and served as President of the HSA from 1981 to 1983 as President of the ASBT from 1976 to 1978.
- Kevin was awarded an AM for services to medicine in 1987 and received a World Federation of Haemophilia Award in 2014.
- Bob Beal was one of the most recognised people in Australian haematology and blood transfusion. He commenced his career as a research fellow in 1959 at RPAH. Appointed as Director of the Red Cross BTS in Adelaide in 1964. He was a Clinical Professor at Flinders Medical School and a founding member of the Society.
- His service to medicine and humanity was, like him, eclectic and enthusiastic. A Fellow of RACMA, Fellow of RCPA (1971), RACP, AMA (1986) and FAIM. He was appointed Head of the Blood Department of the International Red Cross/Red Crescent in Switzerland and was President of the ISBT (1998-2000).
- After his army national service in the 1950s, he became a Representative Honorary Colonel of the RAAMC until 2004. The memorable opening ceremony of the joint congress of the ISBT and ISH in 1986 saw Bob and Wilbur Hughes give an organ recital at the Sydney Opera House. He was awarded an AM for Services to Medicine in 1988 and was a proud recipient of the Haari Nevanlinna Medal of the Finnish Red Cross Blood Service.
- Harry Kronenberg was key in establishing and nourishing the new specialty of haematology in Australia. Committed to education and focussing on laboratory haematology, for more than a decade, he was Chairman of the Education Board and Chief haematology examiner for the RCPA.
- In 1971 he chaired the NSW BTS Scientific Committee (1971-2001).
- He insisted on trainee exposure to transfusion medicine and covered the hosting of the XIXth ISBT Congress in Sydney. Harry was recognised with an AM in 2001 for services to haematology, transfusion medicine and education. The RCPA recognised Harry as a Distinguished Fellow in 2000.
- Bryan dedicated his career to service excellence in and of routine haematology laboratories encouraging the highest quality and standards of service for patients. As a registrar he worked with Carl de Gruchy in Melbourne and with Sir John Dacie at the Hammersmith in London. After further postgraduate experience in the USA, he was appointed as a specialist at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne.
- He generously gave much of his time and energy to key societies, organisations and their committees, including JSAC and RCPA (Chief Examiner- haematology). He was President of ISH Asian-Pacific (1982-89) and President of ASBT (1982-84). He was President of the new Australian and New Zealand Society of Nuclear Medicine (Victoria), Deputy Chairman of the National BTS Committee from 1988 and a board member of the ICSH, as well as a NATA assessor.
- Self-characterised as a ‘footnote to history’, he was, in reality a cornerstone, and made himself available to so many people, generously sharing not just his time, but his deep expertise with registrars, colleagues and medical scientists across Australia and the world.
- Judith Hay graduated in medicine, one of the few females in her medical class
In 1959, she assumed the position of staff specialist in serology at the Red Cross BTS in Adelaide. She was a very supportive deputy director to Bob Beal and in 1964 was made director of serology.
Read more...With the first successful renal transplant in Australia performed in 1965, Hay went to the US and Netherlands to gain experience in the new techniques of tissue typing. On return she established the first tissue typing laboratory in Australia. This laboratory established international links, developing an extensive database of antigens, including the first database from Australian indigenous populations.
She was awarded a fellowship of the RCPA in 1972. She was President of ASBT from 1987 to 1988, President of the Australian Tissue Typing Association and President of the Australian and South East Asian Tissue Typing Association.
- Dr Anthony Keller graduated from Sydney University and after spending 7 years in the U.K, pursued a career in Immunology and Transfusion Medicine. Following his appointment as head of the Hunter Valley in 1980 he became Director of the West Australian Blood Transfusion Service in 1984.
- In 1996 after the establishment of the Australian Red Cross Blood Service he served on the National Executive before taking on the role of National Donor and Product Safety Manager for the organisation as well as taking on the role of Manager of the Northern Territory Blood Service
- He has published over 60 peer-reviewed research papers and was a member of the Council of Europe Expert Committee on Transfusion (SP-GTS) for several years.
- His Ruth Sanger Oration was an overview of the impact that variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease had on transfusion medicine.
- Dr Kathy McGrath trained in Medicine in Melbourne and then trained in haematology becoming the Director of Diagnostic haematology at the Royal Melbourne hospital and later a Professor of Medicine at the University of Melbourne. She went on to become the Deputy Director-General, Health System Performance, with the NSW Department of Health with responsibility for performance improvement, quality and safety, and information management and technology.
- She was the Chair of the Pretransfusion Guidelines working party in 1990 and became President of the Society in 1991. She was awarded the Ruth Sanger Oration in 1998.
- After post graduate studies in transfusion in Edinburgh, Graeme went to Libya and then Papua New Guinea to establish and develop national transfusion services. He was the Medical Director of the Auckland Blood Transfusion Services from 1976 to 1998. After retirement from the Auckland Blood Service, he was appointed as an Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine and Pathology at Auckland University from 1998-2020.
- He was the first New Zealander to serve as President of the Society in 1993 and chaired the Scientific Sub-Committee from 1999 to 2004. He was elected an Executive Councillor of ISBT in 1990 and chaired its Working Party on Rare Blood Donors. Graeme had many transfusion assignments for WHO, Red Cross and other national transfusion societies throughout the world, including Bangladesh, India, Iran and Vietnam.
- Graeme was awarded the CNZM in 2022 for services to transfusion medicine.
- Derek qualified in Microbiology, Haematology and Blood Transfusion in England. He emigrated to New Zealand in 1961 to work at the University of Otago Medical School. In 1971 he moved to Australia becoming the Director of the WHO National Blood Group Reference Laboratory.
- He was an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at both Royal Melbourne and Sydney Universities of Technology and was active in organising and running workshops and lecture series in both Australia and Vietnam. His main interests were in blood group genetics and serology including work on the Rh D blood group antigens, development of anti-D reagents and the development of monoclonal antibodies.
- He held various executive positions on both international and national blood transfusion bodies and medical science organisations. Publications include joint authorship of one book and over 30 articles in peer-reviewed journals.
- Anne studied at the University of Sydney achieving a BSc, MSc and PhD. In 1969 she began work for the NSW Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service from 1969) and in 1997 became a senior executive in the newly established Australian Red Cross Blood Service with responsibility for the strategic direction of R&D, ethics, and haemovigilance.
- Anne’s research interests were initially in monoclonal antibody development, and she later oversaw the national implementation of monoclonal anti-A and anti-B antibodies for blood grouping in conjunction with CSL. From 2002 Anne consulted to government and private industry. She was a member of the ARCBS Board from 2005-12.
- As President of the Society, Anne was responsible for the development of the first Strategic Plan and the establishment of the Research Fund with which she maintained an involvement as its Chair from 2004-08.
- Anne received the Peter Schiff Award in 2004.
- Mark trained in haematology at Westmead and Concord Hospitals then worked as the Assistant Director of the then NSW Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service from 1994 to 2002 when he moved to become a senior staff specialist at Gosford Hospital.
- He served as President from 1999 to 2002 and oversaw the inclusion of the Apheresis Society into the ANZSBT. Mark was a recipient of the Peter Schiff Award in 2014 and has been involved in many state and government committees including IVIG, RhD, Haemophilia and blood wastage.
- He chaired the medical module of the NBA/NHMRC Patient Blood Management Guidelines. He has also been a NATA auditor. Currently he is the Clinical Transfusion Lead for NSW Health Pathology.
- Ken Davis was born in Scotland moving to Australia where he had a distinguished career in transfusion science. He was the chief biomedical scientist in the blood bank at Royal Adelaide hospital for over 30 years.
- Ken was committed to education and improving transfusion practice throughout his career. He was a Fellow of the Faculty of Science of the RCPA.
- He was a member of the ANZSBT Scientific sub-committee and closely involved in the drafting of Guidelines on both pretransfusion testing and blood grouping in the antenatal and perinatal setting. He was the Society President from 2003 to 2007.
- His contribution was recognised with the Peter Schiff Award in 2009 and the Ruth Sanger Oration in 2012. In 2016 he has been appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for his services to biomedical science and transfusion medicine.
- Peter trained in medicine and haematology in the UK. He worked for the blood service in England from 1987 to 1998 when he moved to New Zealand to take up the role of National Medical Director in the newly established New Zealand Blood Service. He was a member of the WHO Expert panel in Transfusion and an expert in Council of Europe committees. He was closely involved with the International Society of Blood Transfusion as President in 2012-14 and then Chair of the Standing Committee on Ethics for many years. He was responsible for a major review of the Society’s Code of Ethics.
- His Ruth Sanger Oration, titled ‘Reflections of a Journeyman Transfusionist’, reviewed the history of voluntary non-remunerated donation and considered its role in the 21st century.
- Peter was awarded the ONZM in 2023 for services to blood transfusion.
Erica trained in haematology in Australia and the US. In 2000 she took up a position with the Australian Red Cross Blood Service. In 2012, she moved to the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University to lead the Transfusion Research Unit. She was the RCPA Chief Examiner, Haematology from 2012-15, a founding member of ‘Blood Matters’ and an NHMRC Leadership Fellow. She was a member of the Clinical Practice Improvement Committee (2007-10), the Scientific Subcommittee (2005-07) and the Research Advisory Committee from 2016. Erica was President of the International Haemovigilance Network from 210-19, and from 2020-22 President of the International Society of Blood Transfusion. She was awarded the International Haemovigilance Medal in 2022. Her Ruth Sanger Oration focussed on the development of haemovigilance systems and their contribution to improving clinical transfusion practice. Erica was awarded an AO in 2023 in recognition of her ‘distinguished service to transfusion medicine and haemovigilance, to haematology, and to national and international organisations’.
- Simon is a Senior Scientist with the Transfusion Policy and Education team at Australian Red Cross Lifeblood. He served three terms as President of the Society (2013-15; 2019-21; 2021-2023) and a long-time member of the Transfusion Science Standing Committee.
- Simon trained as a Biomedical Scientist in the UK and is a Fellow of the Institute of Biomedical Science (FIBMS). He has worked as a medical scientist for the national transfusion services in the UK and NZ and hospital transfusion laboratories in the UK, Saudi Arabia and New Zealand.
- His interests include adverse transfusion events and haemovigilance and before moving to Australia Simon was responsible for introducing the New Zealand’s National Haemovigilance Programme.
- Simon is a member of the ISBT (and its Haemovigilance Working Party) and the International Haemovigilance Network (IHN) Seminar Committee.
- James trained in haematology and transfusion medicine in Australia before taking up a position as haematologist in Hobart. He moved to the ARCBS (now ARC Lifeblood) as the Medical Director Pathology Services, Clinical Services and Research. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor, Faculty of Health, School of Biomedical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology
- James has been a member of the ANZSBT Transfusion Science Standing Committee, the National Blood Transfusion Committee, the National Haemovigilance Advisory Committee, the NBA Patient Blood Management Steering Committee, the RCPA Haematology Advisory Committee, and the RACP Adult Medicine Division Council.
- James is the Australian Principal Investigator for the Blood transfusion Genomics Consortium
- Gemma trained in haematology in Australia and is a Fellow of both the RACP and RCPA. She now works as is a paediatric haematologist at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne. She is a Clinical Research Fellow at the Transfusion Research Unit, Monash University. Her interests include paediatric blood transfusion, paediatric benign haematology, obstetric haematology and neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia
- Gemma was ANZSBT President from 2017-19. She has been the chair of the paediatric subgroup of the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT) Clinical Transfusion and Haemovigilance Working Parties. She was involved in the development of the evidence-based national patient blood management guidelines and was a member of the clinical/consumer reference group for Module 6, neonatal and paediatric patients.
- ANZSBT acknowledges Australia’s and New Zealand’s First Nations Peoples as the traditional owners and custodians of these two lands and their surrounding waters, also acknowledging and paying respect to their elders, past, present, and emerging.
- The History Project was brought into existence by work of the following members and friends of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Blood Transfusion, with support of the ANZSBT Council to celebrate the ANZSBT 60th anniversary.
- Mr Simon Benson (Inaugural Committee Chair)
- Ms Robyn Barlow
- Dr Peter Flanagan ONZM
- Dr Anne Fletcher
- Dr James Isbister AM
- Mr John Lown
- Ms Rebecca McClean
- Dr Robyn Minchinton (Committee Chair)
- Dr David Roxby
- Mr Robert (Ed) Sage
- Dr Alison Street AO
- Ms Anne Wiseman