Professor Vicki Sara was elected Chancellor of the University of Technology Sydney in 2004. Professor Sara is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.

Professor Sara’s previous appointments include Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Research Council from 2001-2004 and Chair of the Council and a member of the Prime Minister’s Science Engineering and Innovation Council (PMSEIC), and the CSIRO Board  from 1997-2001.  Professor Sara was also a member of the Advisory Board of the Rio Tinto Foundation for a Sustainable Minerals Industry from 2002-2007, Consul General for Sweden in Sydney from 2006-2007, andwas appointed Vice-Chair of the OECD’s Global Science Forum in 1999 and member of the Advisory Board of the APEC R&D Leaders’ Forum in 2002.  She was Director of the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics from 2004-2009, the Australian Institute  of Commercialisation  2007- 2010, Chair of the Board of the Australian Stem Cell Centre from 2005-2008, Chair of the Advisory Board of the Centre for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology 2011-2012, and Chair NSW Panel Sir John Monash Scholarship 2011-2013.  Professor Sara was elected Convenor of the University Chancellors Council 2006-2008 and 2011-2012.

Professor Sara returned to Australia in 1993 following a research career at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

She was awarded the Rolf Luft medal in 1993 for excellence in endocrine research by the Karolinska Institute, and also received the Sir John Eccles Award from the NH&MRC in 1994.  She was appointed as foreign Professor of Karolinska Institute in 1995.  She was awarded the Centenary Medal in 2003, and was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science by the University of Southern Queensland in 2004, the Victoria University in 2005, the University of Technology Sydney in 2009, and the University of Sydney in 2016. She was awarded an Honorary Doctor of the University, Queensland University of Technology in 2006.

Professor Sara was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to science and higher education in 2010

Highlights

Seeing the structure of a protein at the atomic level as an undergrad set off a career in structural biology for Brett Collins. His interest in how cells work, and the techniques used to visualise the complex interaction mechanisms of the structures within, earned him his PhD in 2001. Postdoctorate work at Cambridge University steered him towards ‘membrane trafficking’, the term used to describe how proteins are moved from one part of a cell to another, or indeed between cells, via a complex system of membranes.

Now, as head of IMB’s Membrane Trafficking Group, he’s using techniques such as X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy to visualise protein structure at the atomic level to investigate why things sometimes go wrong with our cells’ protein transport system. Faulty proteins are known to cause the development of neurodegenerative conditions such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease, and muscular dystrophy.

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