Sir Frank MacFarlane Burnet

Sir Frank MacFarlane Burnet (nobelpreis.org)

Sir Frank MacFarlane Burnet was born on September 3rd, 1899, in Traralgon, Australia. Burnet received his medical degree from the University of Melbourne in 1923. In 1923 Burnet researched the reactions of Typhoid Fever at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. From 1923-1924 Burnet worked as a resident pathologist at Melbourne Hospital.

In 1926, he was awarded with a Beit Fellowship for his research, then for a year he worked at the Lister Institute in London. In 1932 Burnet spent a year doing research at The National Institute of Medical Research in London.

Burnet conducted a lot of his research at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, and in 1944 Burnet became the director of the institute.

In 1960, Burnet, along with Sir Peter Brian Medawar, received the Nobel Prize for the discovery that the immune system of an unborn baby learns how to distinguish between self and non-self.

Burnet Diploma for the Nobel Prize (nobelprize.org)

Frank MacFarlane Burnet is recognized as one of Australia’s greatest scientists and he sure did his country proud in the medical field. The reason why I chose to write about Sir Frank MacFarlane Burnet is because he was born in Traralgon, which is my birthplace and the town where I have grown up and currently live. I am proud to have such a fine medical researcher come from Traralgon and I’m sure the rest of the town is too.