Invited Speaker

Dr Ken Winkel is an Associate Professor within the School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne and Honorary Fellow of the University's Medical History Museum. A leading Australian toxinologist, he was the Director of the Australian Venom Research Unit (AVRU) 1999-2015, and has now moved into a teaching specialist role within one of the worlds’ leading schools of public health. He is a Fellow of the Australasian College of Tropical Medicine (ACTM) and a member of the Biodiversity Committee of the Doctors for the Environment Australia. He is an alumnus of the University of Melbourne (PhD, Walter and Elisa Hall Institute; WEHI), the University of Queensland (MBBS) (BMedSci, Tropical Health Program, QIMR) and the Swiss Tropical Institute. He is also Past President of the ACTM and is a member of the editorial board of the journal Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease. Dr Winkel has been a CSL [now Seqirus] consultant on venoms and envenomations, and managed the 24 hour medical advisory service provided by AVRU to doctors, poisons information centres and paramedical personnel on Struan Sutherland's retirement. He continues as a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the journal Australian Prescriber and is the inaugural chair of the WEHI's Alumni Relations Steering Committee.

Dr Winkel is also active in teaching, lecturing to medical and science students and graduates, and has presented more than 100 papers and posters at Australian and international meetings and published more than 100 papers. His work has attracted more than $7m in funding since 1996. In June 2005 he was awarded the Vita Lampada Medal for Excellence in Medical and Health Education, from the Royal Children's Hospital and Health Service District, Brisbane, Queensland. In July 2007 he was awarded the ACTM Medal for Distinguished Contribution to Tropical Medicine. In December 2020 he was awarded the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health Teaching Excellence Award.