Upper Yarra
8 Tuesday, 27 January, 2015
Giant water lily
5
Mail Covering the Upper Yarra Region of the Yarra Ranges Shire
School sign call
A Mail Newspaper Group publication
21-23
Phone: 5957 3700 Trades and Classifieds: 1300 666 808
Funder first By KATH GANNAWAY
Eminent endocrinologist, Professor John Funder AC. University, in 1967 on steroid hormones. “I’ve stuck in that area of hormones and high blood pressure and heart failure has been my central focus for 48 years. Maybe I’m a slow
learner,” he added with what one suspects is a trademark humour! Already, he said, the pace of discovery in medical research over his academic lifetime has been extraordinary.
Rich vein of recognition
“It’s just wonderful,” he said. “What I would compare it to for people who have not had this privilege is watching David Attenborough and you get that sense of “isn’t it wonderful”. “Well, it’s not all wonderful” he admits. “Your rats get the mange, things bugger up sometimes but, basically, you stand there and look at the results and you think nobody else in the world has ever known this before, ever had this thought before. It’s just wonderful stuff. “I wish I were 20 because I’m 74 now and in the next 54 years there’s going to be so many wonderful things that we not only don’t know now, but that we don’t know that we don’t know!” Among many roles, Professor Funder is a Senior Fellow at Prince Henry’s Institute of Medical Research, Professor - Department of Medicine at Monash University, Professorial Associate at the Centre for Neuroscience, University of Melbourne, and Honorary Professor, Institute of Molecular Biosciences, University of Queensland, he is also the former executive director and now patron of Obesity Australia. He has chaired many boards including Sane Australia and the International Society of Endocrinology and sits on numerous and varied other boards. Australia Day will provide an opportunity for Professor Funder to indulge in another passion. The move from the inner city to the Yarra Valley with his second wife, Val Diamond, has been another wonderful chapter in a fortunate life that now involves eight acres of vines in the heart of one of Australia’s top wine regions. “I like to muck about with wine a bit,” he said. An Australia Day toast, then, seems appropriate.
YARRA Ranges Shire’s rich vein of community workers, philanthropists and industry achievers has been recognised with Australia Day Awards presented at Upwey yesterday. Mayor Maria McCarthy presented the following awards: Citizen of the Year - Brian Luscombe (Healesville); Youth Citizen of the Year - Prue Northey (Mount Evelyn); Environmental Achiever of the Year - Ben Ellis (Mount Evelyn); Ken McIntosh Memorial Award for Young Achiever of the Year - Caitlin MacDonald (Narre Warren East); Community Group of the Year Community 3777 Township Group and Healesville 150 Steeting Committee (Healesville); Ian De La Rue Community Leadership Award - Michelle Rayner (The Patch); and Mayor’s Lifetime Achievement Award - Roger Boness (Mount Evelyn). Certificates of Recognition were presented to Warburton Skate Park Group, WinHort Yarra Ranges, Dandenong Ranges Music Council, community advocate Neil Cameron, Project Upwey, Andrew Roberts from Edge Martial Arts and the Lions Club of Mooroolbark. Yarra Ranges residents also featured in the Australia Day, Order of Australia Honours List. Marcus Besen was awarded a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC). Mr Besen, philanthropist and co-founder of TarraWarra Museum of Art was recognised for service to the visual and performing arts. Wesley Jon Fleming from Monbulk received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to the horticultural industry and landscape architecture. Yarra Ranges was also represented in the Australian of the Year awards announced in Canberra last night with Thomas King from Kalorama a finalist as Victorian Young Australian of the Year. - Kath Gannaway
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A WORLD-RENOWNED Wandin East medical researcher and a group of Warburton teenagers with a passion for skateboarding are among people from across Yarra Ranges Shire recognised in local and national Australia Day awards. Hard work, dedication, passion, a love of community and unerring commitment to making things happen were common themes as the Federal Government’s Australia Day Honours were announced on Sunday night and Yarra Ranges Mayor Maria McCarthy presented the council’s Australia Day Awards at Burrinja in Upwey yesterday (Monday). Endocrinologist Professor John Funder, stands out as one of only five people throughout Australia to receive a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) this year. The award recognises 50 years of “eminent service to medicine” and particularly notes his service to cardiovascular endocrinology as a renowned researcher, author and educator, to the development of academic health science centres and to mental illness, obesity and Indigenous eyehealth programs. His involvement in Australia and the world’s most prestigious health organisations from hospitals and universities to government and philanthropic boards is exhaustive, as is the scope of his work. Put “Professor John Funder” into a search engine and be prepared to settle down to a lengthy and inspiring read! He is working this year towards publishing his 600th scientific paper. He said he was seduced into the world of research almost 50 years ago, prompted by an observation of the synchronicity of nose-bleeds and menstrual cycles in nurses who worked and boarded together. His first research project was at the Howard Florey Institute, Melbourne
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