Join us in celebrating the life of Professor Chris Bryant AM.

About this event

The inaugural Chris Bryant Memorial Lecture is an event jointly organised by the Research School of Biology and CPAS will take place on 25 July 2022 from 4-6 PM. This year's lecture will be presented by Alexander Maier, a professor in the Research School of Biology. Professor Maier will discuss “Sushi, Sex and Mind Control – Why Parasites (still) Matter." Following the lecture, please consider staying afterward for drinks and nibbles (in a COVID-friendly manner) in the Robertson Building's larger foyer. We hope that there will be an opportunity to share memories of Chris at this time. This is a free event. 

Please try to register in advance: https://bit.ly/chrisbryant-memorial

Please use this flyer to share with others: Inaugural Chris Bryant AM Memorial Lecture Flyer 

About the speaker

Professor Alex Maier’s passion for Molecular Parasitology was ignited during his studies at the University of Tuebingen (Germany) and Southern Colorado (USA). During his doctorate he investigated protein trafficking and membrane proteins of an energy generating organell in Trypanosoma brucei, the causative agent of the African sleeping sickness. This work was conducted under the supervision of Professor Christine Clayton at the ZMBH (Center for Molecular Biology) in Heidelberg, Germany.

In 2000 he was awarded a Post-doctoral fellowship from the German research council (Deutsche Forschungssgemeinschaft) to join the Walter and Eliza Institute of Medical Research (WEHI), Melbourne. Here he established and headed the WEHI Malaria Functional Genomics Facility from 2002-2008 focussing on the mechanism of how malaria parasites invade red blood cells and the transport and display of malaria molecules on the surface of infected red blood cells.

Prof. Maier moved to the Department of Biochemistry at La Trobe University as ARC Australian Research Fellow and lab head in 2008 to investigate red blood cell modifications induced by the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum.

Prof. Alex Maier joined the Division of Biomedical Sciences and Biochemistry at The Australian National University in 2012. His research activites have been recognised by several awards including being a finalist at the Eureka Awards and a Laureate of the Khwarizmi International Award. He is an Alexander-von-Humboldt Fellow, a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Fellow of the Australian Society for Parasitology.

About Chris Bryant

Professor Chris Bryant AM served as a member of ANU for almost 60 years. He was an eminent and much published parasitologist. Perhaps his greatest contribution, however, as the ANU Dean of Science, was to found the program that became the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science. He was also critical to the collaboration between the ANU and Questacon in the 1980s through the Science Circus: a partnership that marked the beginning of the institutionalisation of public science outreach activities by ANU science students. The establishment of science communication as a discipline at the ANU has led to the growth of CPAS into the twenty-first century. Chris leaves behind a lasting legacy and a memory of a great Australian