Andrew Brooks 25 years at the University of Melbourne

Congratulations to Prof Andrew Brooks who received acknowledgement from Head of School, Prof Jennifer Wilkinson-Berka for 25 years at the University of Melbourne.

Andrew Brooks receives 25 year service medal from Jennifer Wilkinson-Berka

Image: Jennifer Wilkson-Berka acknowledges Andrew Brooks 25 year milestone at the School of Biomedical Sciences end-of-year function.

Prof Andrew Brooks is the Head of Department of Microbiology & Immunology and the Deputy Director of the Doherty Institute. He commenced at the University of Melbourne in 1999 to establish a laboratory focussed on understanding the receptor/ ligand interactions that govern immune recognition of viral infection and cancer. During his time at the University of Melbourne he has published widely, become internationally recognised as an expert in natural killer cells and in particular the receptors they use to discriminate between healthy and infected or transformed cells, and climbed the leadership ladder!

25 years is a wonderful achievement. A lot can happen in that time... in discovery science, across the university, in one’s career... so we checked in to find out what Andrew’s key highlights and notable memories are.

Key Highlights

When I first arrived at Melbourne, I was struck by the collegiality of the senior staff which hadn’t really been a feature of my time in the US which might be better described as a more “competitive” environment.

In particular for me, watching, encouraging and supporting, where appropriate, the transition of a whole group of people from their days as students or very early stage post-doctoral fellows into incredibly substantive academics is probably the key highlight.

From a scientific point of view, it has felt like a couple of areas of research have developed from being almost “niche” ideas to now really major fields of research with dozens of laboratories worldwide actively working in those areas.  It’s been really exciting having a close up view.

The creation of the Doherty Institute – its initial growth, and seeing its relevance and influence during the COVID pandemic is an obvious one.

Key Influencers

I have had lots of mentors – whether they knew it or not!

From a research and leadership perspective, I benefitted enormously from Jim McCluskey who recruited me to Melbourne. Similarly, Frank Carbone was the consummate teaching and research academic who could teach the most difficult immunology with a clarity that just inspired students and also brought that same clarity to his research…so much to learn about the way he performed both of those roles.  Sandra Uren…amazingly gifted teacher, who I must have spent literally hundreds of hours with talking about various aspects of teaching at Melbourne.  

I could go on and on about the things I have learned from so many of my colleagues…

A Time of Change

Amongst the biggest changes are those to teaching. In my early days, there were no online lecture notes and certainly no capacity for recording of lectures.  At that point in time, for undergraduate students, education at the University of Melbourne was very much dominated by on campus learning.  That is not to say that lectures are the best way of teaching (or learning) but I think in general there was greater level of casual interaction between students and academics that was pretty healthy and that acted as a good counterbalance to the relatively didactic models of content delivery 15-20 years ago.

Lasting Memories

My earliest recollections are of driving into the Uni in the hot dry Australian summer and feeling “home.”

A series of laboratory renovations, when I first arrived, delayed the plan to give me some space – a series of lab swaps, a small corral in the back of the McCluskey lab, and time in a shared lab got me meeting lots of people before my newly renovated lab became home from 1999 (until we moved into the Doherty Institute).  

In a research sense, the expertise I had acquired during my post-doctoral time in the USA, allowed me to make the first MHC tetramers in Australia which at the time where a revolutionary technology that allowed for the identification of virus-specific T cells and this opened a lot of doors.

The other memory from that time is that initially I wasn’t getting paid!  When I cautiously raised it with the Department Manager, he raised so much racket within the University that I got paid twice…it spoke to his commitment to make sure the staff in his department were looked after ….something that to me has been an absolute constant with each of the three department managers that the Department of Microbiology and Immunology has had over my entire 25 years.

Reflection & Advice

Don’t sweat the small stuff…focus on the decisions and practices that are going benefit you over the medium to long term. Too often, the drama of the day is exactly that…drama. It creates noise and often some anxiety but you are better off putting your energies, efforts and creativity into things that you can impact and change and that will have more lasting benefits.

Congratulations Andrew, we wish you another 25+ more years of success in Biomedicine and discovery science.

Andrew Brooks