Professor Kefford honoured in Queen's Birthday list

Professor Kefford, the Director of the Westmead Institute for Cancer Research, was given the award for “service to medicine in the area of oncology research, to professional organisations, and as an educator”.

“I was very touched to get the award particularly because… these are all the things that I have really valued in my career and I’m very happy that they mentioned all of those,” he said.

“At the same time I regard any recognition as going to the team of people who I work with, many of whom have worked with me for 20 years continuously in clinical or research arenas,” he said.

The Order of Australia is not the first time Professor Kefford has been honoured with a major award – in 1985 he was the President of the Medical Association for Prevention of War when the group was jointly awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to educate people about the medical effects of nuclear weapons.

He is also well-known for his research into melanoma and molecular oncology.

“I’ve tried to do my bit… translating the information relating to recent advances in molecular aspects of cancer [to help] make it comprehensible for clinicians who are increasingly having to deal with that information when they are using new, targeted cancer drugs,” he said.