Professor Peter Doherty (b. 1940), immunologist, shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1996 for his discoveries about how the immune system recognises virus-infected cells. At the ANU's John Curtin School of Medical Research from 1973 to 1975, Doherty and his Nobel co-recipient Rolf Zinkernagel investigated components of the immune system known as 'killer T-cells', paving the way for a better understanding of organ rejection after transplants and genetic susceptibility to disease. Doherty has said that his success as a scientist stems from 'a non-conformist upbringing, a sense of being something of an outsider, and looking for different perceptions in everything from novels, to art, to experimental results. I like complexity, and am delighted by the unexpected.' Since 1988 he has been head of the immunology department at St Jude Children's Research Hospital, Tennessee.
