Posted 26 September 2011
UCD Ulysses Medal for Nobel Prize-winning Australian scientist
Peter Doherty, the only veterinary scientist to win a Nobel Prize, has been awarded the UCD Ulysses Medal, the highest honour that the university can bestow.
Professor Doherty won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1996 (with co-recipient Professor Rolf Zinkernagel) for his groundbreaking research into the role of T Cells in the body’s immune system.
Nobel Laureate, Professor Peter Doherty at UCD
In 1997, he was named Australian of the year, and in 2014 a new $210 million research institute at the University of Melbourne named after him (The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity) will become operational.
A member of the Australian Academy of Science, Professor Doherty is currently involved in an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council program to develop a new-generation influenza vaccine.
The UCD award was presented by Professor Maurice Boland, Principal of the UCD College of Agriculture, Food Science and Veterinary Medicine.
Professor Grace Mulcahy, Dean of Veterinary Medicine at UCD; Nobel Laureate, Professor Peter Doherty; and Professor Maurice Boland, Principal of the UCD College of Agriculture, Food Science and Veterinary Medicine
After receiving the UCD Ulysses Medal, Professor Doherty gave a lecture to hundreds of UCD veterinary students that gathered to hear about his journey of discovery from his first day in university to winning the Nobel Prize.
The event recognised 2011 as World Veterinary Year, and also marked the renaming of the UCD School of Veterinary Medicine.
(Produced by UCD University Relations)
