Professor Ian Gust AO

Ian David Gust AO, is a distinguished Australian medical researcher, renowned for pioneering work in virology and drug development including his significant contributions to vaccine development. Gust’s laboratories, in collaboration with researchers at Monash University, were the first to isolate the hepatitis A virus, and one of the first to isolate strains of the respiratory syncytial virus.

Gust served as the Commonwealth Chief Medical and Scientific Adviser on AIDS from 1989 to 1992 and directed the National Hepatitis Reference Centre from 1979 to 1990. From 1985 to 1991, Gust was the inaugural director of the Macfarlane Burnet Centre for Medical Research, later the Burnet Institute. Following which he directed research at the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories, now CSL Limited, playing a key role in its successful expansion until he departed in 2008.

Post-retirement, Gust remained active as a Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne and a consultant to many prominent organisations, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UNICEF, and the World Bank.