Professor Paul Zimmet

Paul Zimmet is currently Foundation Director of the International Diabetes Institute, a position he has held since 1985. He is also Professor of Diabetes at Monash University and is a Professor at Deakin University and the Graduate School of Public Health, the University of Pittsburgh. He served on the Australian Government's Strategic Taskforce on Diabetes from 1997-2002. His research in Pacific and Indian Ocean populations (Micronesians, Polynesians and Melanesians and migrant Asian Indians, Chinese and Creoles) has provided new insights into the genetic contribution of Type 2 diabetes and the role of obesity, exercise, nutrition and socio-cultural change. More recently, he led the team that carried out the first ever national diabetes and obesity study in Australia (AusDiab). He has published over 550 scientific papers, chapters and reviews in peer-reviewed journals and books. He is co-editor of the major and widely used text on diabetes - "International Textbook of Diabetes Mellitus" and also co-editor of the "The Epidemiology of Diabetes".

Professor Zimmet has received many awards, including the Kelly West Medal from the American Diabetes Association, Eli Lilly Award of the IDF, and the AM Cohen Award Lecture of the EASD. In 1997, at the 16th IDF Congress in Finland, he received the 1st Peter Bennett Diabetes Epidemiology Award for outstanding contributions to research on the epidemiology of diabetes. In 2002, he received the Harold Rifkin Award of the American Diabetes Association for contributions to diabetes internationally and was also conferred as Honoris Causa Doctoris by the Complutense University, Madrid, the second largest university in the world. In 2003, he was the recipient of the Kellion Award Lecture, Australian Diabetes Society and the David Curnow Plenary Lecture, Australian Association of Clinical Biochemists. He has been awarded the 2004 UN/UNESCO Mehnert Award of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes.

In 1993, he was award the Order of Australia (AM) for distinguished services to medicine and education, particularly in the field of diabetes. In 2001, he was further honoured with the "Order of Australia" (AO) for services to medical research of national and international significance, particularly in the field of diabetes, as a leader of investigations into social, nutritional and lifestyle diseases, and to biotechnology development in Australia.