Peter C. Doherty biography
Date of birth : 1940-10-15
Date of death : -
Birthplace : Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Nationality : Australian
Category : Science and Technology
Last modified : 2011-09-27
Credited as : veterinary surgeon, medical researcher, Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine
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Trained as a veterinary surgeon, Peter C. Doherty won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1996, sharing the award with Rolf M. Zinkernagel, for their explanation how T cells recognize target antigens. In his post-Nobel work, Doherty has studied viruses that cause cancer and Epstein-Barr disease. His portrait has appeared on a 45¢ postage stamp in his native Australia.
Doherty was born in Brisbane, Queensland, where he attended Indooroopilly State High School. He received his bachelor's degree in veterinary science in 1962 and his master's degree in veterinary science in 1966 from the University of Queensland. After obtaining his PhD in 1970 from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, he returned to Australia to perform his Nobel Prize-winning research at the John Curtin School of Medical Research in Canberra. Doherty currently spends three months of the year conducting research at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, where he is a faculty member at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center through the College of Medicine. For the other 9 months of the year he works in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Melbourne, Victoria. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1987.
His semi-autobiographical book, The Beginner's Guide to Winning the Nobel Prize, was published by The Miegunyah Press, an imprint of Melbourne University Publishing Ltd, Melbourne in 2005.
Awards:
Lasker Award 1995
Nobel Prize for Medicine 1996 (with Rolf M. Zinkernagel)
