A Flinders graduate and former academic staff member, Professor Steven Wesselingh, will be Executive Director of the new South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute.

Professor Wesselingh, who currently heads the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Allied Health Sciences at Monash University, completed his Flinders medical degree in 1981, and was awarded his PhD by the University in 1992.

He subsequently pursued his research on the neuroimmunology of HIV at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, before returning to Flinders in 1994 to set up the Neurovirology Research Unit in the Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.

A leading researcher in the field of infectious diseases and their effects on the brain and central nervous system, Professor Wesselingh is a former Director of the Macfarlane Burnet Institute. He was awarded a Distinguished Alumni Award by Flinders University in 2006.

Professor Wesselingh will take up his appointment in October this year. The SA Health and Medical Research Institute is being established by the State Government as the base for more than 600 researchers. Due for completion in 2013, the building will be located next to the site of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital.