Tony McMichael
Professor Anthony John McMichael AO FTSE MBBS PhD (3 October 1942 – 26 September 2014) was an Australian epidemiologist who retired from the Australian National University in 2012.
Background
McMichael grew up in Adelaide, and graduated in medicine from the University of Adelaide (1961-1967). As a student he spent a summer volunteering at a leprosy colony in New Delhi, India where he saw how patients were treated as social outcasts suffering from the stigma of a disfiguring disease although they were no longer contagious. The following year, whilst on a similar service trip to Papua New Guinea he met social sciences student Judith Healy, whom he married shortly after graduation. They had 2 children. He was elected president of the National Union of Students, based in Melbourne, in 1968.[citation needed]
After 18 months in general practice, he was invited to become the PhD student of Professor Basil Hetzel at the new department of social and preventive medicine, Monash University in Victoria, graduating in 1972. Studying factors that influenced the mental health of undergraduate students, he gained skills in epidemiological research. He also showed early evidence of independent inquiry informed by reading the works of thinkers such as Paul R. Ehrlich and Anne H. Ehrlich who questioned the capacity of the Earth to support a growing world population with increasing consumption of resources.[citation needed]
He then worked at the School of Public Health at the
Scholarly contributions
McMichael coined the term the '
While working in South Australia, he uncovered a link between
In later years, and particularly after returning to Australia in 2001, he worked on the
Honours
- Officer of the Order of Australia, 2011
- Member, US National Academy of Sciences, 2011
- Shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore and world scientists
- Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, 2003
- Fellow, Australian Faculty of Public Health Medicine
- John R. Goldsmith award, outstanding contributions to environmental epidemiology, ISEE (2000)
Publications
McMichael published over 300 peer-reviewed papers, 160 book chapters and two sole-author books: "Planetary Overload: Global Environmental Change and Human Health" (1993), and "Human Frontiers, Environments and Disease: Past Patterns, Uncertain Futures" (2001). He has co-authored or edited several books.
In 2012 a Festschrift was held to commemorate his career.[10] In 2015, the formal written festchrift was published.[11]
His last book was published by Oxford University Press in 2017.[12]
References
- ^ National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, nceph.anu.edu.au
- ^ "Clive Hamilton to leave Australia Institute". The Australia Institute. 22 November 2007. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
- ^ PMID 22547802.
- ^ McMichael AJ (1976) "Standardized mortality ratios and the 'healthy worker effect': Scratching beneath the surface". J Occup Med 18:165–168.
- N Engl J Med319:468–475
- ^ "Paying tribute to Professor Tony McMichael: One of the world's public health champions – Croakey".
- ^ McMichael AJ, Hall AJ (1997) "Does immunosuppressive ultraviolet radiation explain the latitude gradient for multiple sclerosis?" Epidemiology 8:642–645.
- PNAS107 (21): 9483-9484
- WHO. pp 1543–1650
- ^ "AJ McMichael Festschrift". Australian National University. 2 November 2012. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
- ISBN 9781925022414.
- ISBN 9780190262952.