Professor Maria Kavallaris
Professor Maria Kavallaris was the winner of the NSW Premier’s Award for Woman of the Year at the 2020 NSW Women of the Year Awards.
Maria is an exceptional researcher, whose own journey with cancer aged 21 led her to dedicate her career to developing treatments for aggressive childhood cancers.
As Founding Director of the Australian Centre for NanoMedicine at UNSW, as well as Head of the Tumour Biology and Targeting Program at Children's Cancer Institute, Maria has made key advances in our understanding and treatment of neuroblastoma; the most common cancer in babies and the third-most common cancer in children.
Her studies have not only identified how some tumours can grow and spread, she has also applied this knowledge to develop effective, less toxic cancer therapies using nanotechnology. Maria’s leadership in cancer nanomedicine has led to clinical and industry collaborations to translate her discoveries into practice.
Maria’s work has been recognised by many national and international awards, including the highly prestigious 2019 Lemberg Medal from the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.