Our People

Sydney Catalyst is comprised of a large and diverse membership of individual researchers, clinicians and students with a shared commitment to improving outcomes for people affected by cancer.

The members and staff from the Sydney Catalyst central office team listed here are all involved in the leadership, scientific, and governance groups that are responsible for driving the Sydney Catalyst program. Full access to a list of all other Sydney Catalyst members is available HERE.

Name

Role

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Governing Council, Scientific Advisory Committee, T2/T3 Working Group

Associate Professor Philip Beale

Background: Philip is the Clinical Director of Cancer Services at the Concord Repatriation General Hospital and Associate Professor Medicine, Concord Clinical School. Philip obtained his m...

Executive, Governing Council, Scientific Advisory Committee

Professor Michael Boyer AM

Background: Michael is the Medical Director of the Chris O'Brien Lifehouse, a Clinical Professor, within the Central Clinical School of the University of Sydney and a medical oncologi...

Governing Council, Scientific Advisory Committee

Dr Karen Briscoe

Background: Karen is a medical oncologist in the Mid North Coast Local Health district. Karen obtained her qualifications from UNSW and trained in the Illawarra and St George region and la...

EnRICH Flagship Program Manager, T2/T3 Working Group

Dr Bea Brown

Background: Bea has been working in health research and research management since the early '00s and in health services and implementation research since 2009, with a brief interlude spent teachi...

Executive, Governing Council, Scientific Advisory Committee, T2/T3 Working Group

Professor Phyllis Butow

Background: Phyllis has worked for over 20 years in the area of Psycho-Oncology and has developed an international reputation in this and the area of health communication. She is curr...

T1/T2 Working Group

Associate Professor Wendy Cooper

Background: Wendy has a broad range of interests in surgical pathology and cytology with special interests in pulmonary pathology, haematopathology and molecular genetics. She graduated fr...

SCITCRS 2019 Working Group, T2/T3 Working Group

Merran Findlay

Background: Merran Findlay is the Executive Research Lead - Cancer Nutrition and Oncology Specialist Dietitian across the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital - Chris O'Brien Lifehouse partnership. ...

Scholarship Review Panel Chair, Scientific Advisory Committee

Associate Professor Peter Grimison

Background: Peter Grimison is currently Staff Specialist in Medical Oncology at Chris O'Brien Lifehouse in Sydney; Visiting Medical Officer at Royal Prince Alfred and Dubbo Base Hospitals;...

Executive and Operations, Governing Council, Pilot and Seed Review Panel Chair, Scientific Advisory Committee, T1/T2 Working Group

Professor Philip Hogg

Background: Phil is an NHMRC Senior Principle Research Fellow. He graduated with a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Queensland in 1987. His post-doctoral training was in the...

Scientific Advisory Committee, T1/T2 Working Group

Professor Lisa Horvath

Background: Having completed medical school at the University of Sydney and trained in medical oncology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Lisa subsequently worked at the Garvan Institute com...

Scientific Advisory Committee, SCITCRS 2019 Working Group

Dr Anthony Joshua

Background: Anthony completed his medical oncology training at the Royal Prince Alfred hospital in Sydney, Australia before moving to Toronto, Canada to complete a PhD under the super...

T2/T3 Working Group

Dr Jessica Lee

Background: Jessica is a palliative medicine physician and clinician-researcher at the Concord Centre for Palliative Care. She is a PhD candidate at University of Technology, Sydney, study...

T1/T2 Working Group

Professor Geoff McCaughan

Background: Upon completion of his postdoctoral training at the University of Oxford in 1986 as a CJ Martin Fellow, Geoff returned to Sydney where he developed the basic research program f...

T2/T3 Working Group

Professor Jane Phillips

Background: Jane is Director of the Centre for Cardiovascular & Chronic Care, Faculty of Health at UTS and a professor of nursing with experience in delivering evidenced-based palliative care...

SCITCRS 2019 Working Group, T2/T3 Working Group

Dr Claudia Rutherford

Background: Claudia is Deputy Director of the QOL Office and Senior Research Fellow at the School of Psychology, University of Sydney. She is based at the Quality of Life (QOL) Office...

T2/T3 Working Group

Professor Tim Shaw

Background: Tim is the inaugural Professor of eHealth and Director of Research in Implementation Science and eHealth Group (RISe) in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Syd...

Executive and Operations, Governing Council, Scientific Advisory Committee

Professor John Simes

Background: John, MBBS, MS, FRACP, MD is Director of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Clinical Trials Centre based at the University of Sydney. He is a Senior ...

Scientific Advisory Committee

John Stubbs

Background: Holding degrees in Accounting and Arts John is a regular speaker at medical conferences and seminars on cancer policy, advocacy, clinical trials and related issues. John is cur...

T1/T2 Working Group

Associate Professor Natalka Suchowerska

Background: Natalka graduated with a PhD in medical physics from the University of Sydney, following a career in clinical physics. Her work broadly aims to use novel technologies and funda...

Governing Council, Scientific Advisory Committee

Professor David Thomas

Background: David is Director of The Kinghorn Cancer Centre and Head of the Cancer Division, Garvan Institute of Medical Research. David undertook medical training at the Univer...

Governing Council, Scientific Advisory Committee

Professor Mathew Vadas

Background: Mathew trained in medicine at the University of Sydney and as a physician at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital before completing a doctorate at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institu...

Pilot and Seed Review Panel Chair, Scientific Advisory Committee, T2/T3 Working Group

Professor Kate White

Background: Kate has over 20 years of experience in clinical practice, education and research in cancer care. As the inaugural Chair of Cancer Nursing and Director of the Cancer Nursing Re...

Operations Team, Scientific Advisory Committee, T1/T2 Working Group

Dr Sonia Yip

Background: Sonia is a molecular biologist and obtained her PhD in signal transduction pathways in breast cancer and CML from the Garvan Institute. She has wide experience in oncology rese...

Governing Council, Scientific Advisory Committee, T2/T3 Working Group

Professor Jane Young

Background: Jane is an epidemiologist with a medical background and specialist training as a public health physician. She has appointments at the University of Sydney, where she holds the ...

Scientific Advisory Committee

Associate Professor Paul Timpson

Background: Paul completed his PhD with Professor Margaret Frame at the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research, UK in 2002 where he assessed the interplay between Src family kinases an...

Central Office Team

Ellen Brodie

Background: Ellen's undergraduate degree was in International Relations with majors in politics, French and Spanish. Ellen undertook a Master's degree in International Developme...

Central Office Team

Cara McFarlane

Background: After completing a Bachelor of Commerce, majoring in Marketing and Management, Cara pursued her childhood passion to work for an airline. She gained invaluable analy...

Central Office Team

Kimberley Mander

Background: Kim recently joined the Sydney Catalyst team from Adelaide. She completed a Bachelor of Psychological Science and was drawn to the biology of disease and undertook a...

Central Office Team

Spoorthi Gowda

Background: Spoorthi joined the Sydney Catalyst team as Senior Research Officer within the EnRICH Flagship program. She has a Masters degree in Information Technology with a maj...

Central Office Team

Eve Simons

Background: Eve has worked as an Events Manager for 16 years. Her career has spanned local government, university and education. Her love of event management was sparked in high schoo...

Research Manager

Merilyn Heuschkel

Background: Merilyn has an undergraduate degree in Applied Science (Sports Management & Exercise Science) and a Master's degree in Public Health. She has 15 years experience worki...

SCITCRS 2019 Working Group

Dr Cherry Koh

Background Dr Cherry Koh has a wide academic interest. As part of her post graduate training, she completed a Masters of Surgery in Colorectal Surgery researching the value of anorectal phys...

SCITCRS 2019 Working Group

Dr Marina Pajic

Background Dr Marina Pajic completed her PhD in the laboratory of Professor Michelle Haber at the Children's Cancer Institute (CCI), University of New South Wales, where she investigated che...

SCITCRS 2019 Working Group

Dr Venessa Chin

Venessa completed her medical oncology training in the Royal Prince Alfred network in 2010 and went on to do her PhD at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in the field of translational g...

SCITCRS 2019 Working Group

Dr Prunella Blinman

Background: Dr Prunella Blinman is a full-time medical oncologist at the Concord Cancer Centre who specialises in the management of thoracic and gastrointestinal cancers. She co...

Central Office Team, T1/T2 Working Group

Emma Ramsay

Background: Doctor Emma Ramsay is a cancer biologist and Sydney Catalyst's T1 T2 Research Fellow. She completed her PhD in the laboratory of Professor Philip Hogg at the Universi...

Central Office Team, T2/T3 Working Group

Alison Young

Background: Alison is a psychologist and current Masters of Clinical Psychology/PhD candidate at the University of Sydney. Alison has over five years of experience working in ps...