About Professor Georgina Long AO and Professor Richard Scolyer AO

Professor Georgina Long AO, BSc (Hons1, UM) PhD MBBS (Hons) FRACP FAHMS, is Co-Medical Director of Melanoma Institute Australia (MIA), and Chair of Melanoma Medical Oncology and Translational Research at MIA and Royal North Shore Hospital, The University of Sydney.

Professor Long leads an extensive clinical trials team and laboratory at MIA, with a focus on targeted therapies and immuno-oncology in melanoma. She is principal investigator on phase I, II and III clinical trials in adjuvant and metastatic melanoma, including trials in patients with active brain metastases. She is the chief investigator on NHMRC funded research into the molecular biology of melanoma, with a particular interest in clinical and tissue biomarker correlates of systemic therapy sensitivity and resistance.

In recognition of her ground-breaking research and work, Professor Long was awarded 2024 Australian of the Year (jointly with colleague Prof Richard Scolyer), she received the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences Outstanding Female Research Medal 2021, and was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Australia (2020).

Prof Long has received numerous other awards, including Sydney Local Health District/Sydney Research 2022 Research Excellence Award (2022) the prestigious Ramaciotti Medal for Biomedical Research (2021), Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence Award for Outstanding Research (2021), University of Sydney (2021), Research Australia GSK Research Excellence Award (2018) and the Sir Zelman Cowen Universities Fund Prize for Discovery in Medical Research (2016). She has a number of CINSW Premiers Awards, including; the Outstanding Cancer Researcher (2018), the Excellence in Translational Cancer Research Award (2017), the Wildfire Award for the most highly-cited, original, peer-reviewed article published (2011, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 & 2020), and in 2013 she was named the Outstanding Cancer Research Fellow. She is also Clarivate highly-cited Researcher for 2017-2022. Her H index is 135 and in January 2024 she was ranked the world’s 2nd melanoma expert in all fields and discipline - see Expertscape website.

Professor Long is the author of over 500 peer-reviewed publications in clinical and translational research in melanoma, including the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Lancet Oncology, Science, Nature, Journal of Clinical Oncology and Cancer Discovery. Professor Long has presented her work at international conferences and meetings on more than 250 occasions. She is Past President for the prestigious international Society for Melanoma Research (2018-2020), is a member and Chair of the ASCO (2015-2017) and ESMO (2017-2020) Scientific Committee for Melanoma/Skin cancer, is medical oncology lead for the Australian Melanoma Management Guidelines Committee, and is member of both the ASCO Plenary Series and ASCO AGM Education committees (2021-2024) she is on the editorial boards of several high-impact journals, and is a member of the Melanoma Expert Panel for AJCC Cancer Staging System 8th edition.

Professor Long was awarded the University Medal in Organic Chemistry. She subsequently completed her PhD in Chemistry in the field of anti-cancer agents and their binding to DNA. She then moved to the USA to take up a Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellowship at Scripps Research Institute, exploring nanotechnology in cancer treatment, before returning to Australia to complete her MBBS (Hons). Professor Long became a Fellow of the Australasian College of Physicians in January 2008, specialising in medical oncology.

Richard Scolyer AO

Professor Richard Scolyer AO, BMedSci, MBBS, MD, FRCPA, FRCPath, FAHMS is Senior Staff Specialist, Tissue Pathology and Diagnostic Oncology, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney; Co- Medical Director, Melanoma Institute Australia; and Conjoint Professor, Sydney Medical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney.

Richard provides a clinical consultation service for the diagnosis of difficult pigmented lesions and receives more than 2000 cases for opinion from Australasia and beyond annually. Richard effectively integrates his clinical practice with co-leading an award winning translational melanoma research laboratory. His record includes co-authoring more than 800 peer reviewed publications, books and/or book-chapters including in prestigious journals such as New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Nature, Cell, Nature Genetics, Lancet Oncology, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Journal of the National Cancer Institute and Cancer Discovery with >63,508 citations and a H-index of 120 (Google Scholar as at 3 August 2022). Richard has presented on more than 400 occasions at conferences throughout the world.

In June 2021, he was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to medicine, particularly in the field of melanoma and skin cancer, and to national and international professional organisations by The Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia. In January 2024 Professor Scolyer and his colleague Professor Georgina Long were jointly named as 2024 Australians of the Year.

In 2020, Prof Scoyer received the NSW Premier's Award for Outstanding Cancer Researcher of the Year, the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA) Distinguished Fellow Award 2020, The University of Sydney’s 2020 Alumni Award for International Achievement and Clarivate Web of Science Group Highly Cited Researcher in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021. Richard has received the NSW Premier's Award for Outstanding Cancer Research in 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2021, Thomson Reuters 2015 Citation Award in the Clinical Medicine category, the 2018 William O. Russell/Joanne Vandenberge Hill Award for Lifetime Achievement in Anatomical Pathology from MD Anderson Cancer Center, Research Australia’s 2018 GSK Award for Research Excellence, the 2019 American Society of Dermatopathology’s Elson B Helwig Award for excellence in dermatopathology, the 2021 University of Tasmania Distinguished Alumni Award and the 2021 University of Sydney’s Vice-Chancellor Award for Outstanding Research. In May 2023 Richard received the 2023 Founders' Award from The American Society of Dermatopathology, recognising his outstanding contribution to the field of dermatopathology, and the 2023 Distinguished Pathologist Award from the International Academy of Pathology (IAP) Australasian Division, to honour his enormous contributions to pathology in Australasia and beyond. In November 2023 he received 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award from The Society for Melanoma Research. 

According to Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Knowledge, Richard is the highest ever published scientist in the world in the field of melanoma pathology and he also has the highest H index in this field. The Fame Report (2011) published by Medical Experts International (medexpert.com) ranked him the 6th leading melanoma expert in any field or discipline worldwide and the highest ranked melanoma pathologist worldwide. In June 2022, he was ranked the world’s 6th leading melanoma expert in any field or discipline and the world’s leading melanoma pathologist (expertscape.com). In September 2019, Richard was ranked as the leading Australian Pathologist in the entire field of pathology (leagueofscholars.com).

Richard is an expert member of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Blue Books Editorial Board for the 5th edition of the WHO Classification of Skin Tumours series and was an editor of the 4th Edition of the World Health Organisation Classification of Tumours Skin Tumours volume in which he was the responsible editor for 3 of the 6 sections and authored/co-authored more than 30 chapters.He has also been an invited contributing author to 6 other volumes of the WHO Classification of Tumours including for Soft Tissue and Bone, Digestive System, Thoracic, Female Genital Tract and Paediatric tumours. He is also Vice Chair of the Melanoma Expert Panel of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) for the 8?? and 9?? editions of AJCC Cancer Staging System, co-leads the Australian Melanoma Genome Project (part of the International Cancer Genome Consortium), was lead pathologist for the NIH funded The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Melanoma Project (Cell, 2015), chairs the Melanoma Expert Panel for the International Collaboration on Cancer Reporting, lead pathologist/member of the overseeing Management Committee, Multidisciplinary Working Party and Author for the Australian Melanoma Clinical Practice Guidelines and co-lead author of the College of American Pathologists Melanoma Reporting protocol. He is Editor-in-Chief of Pathology and is also an editorial board member of the American Journal of Surgical Pathology, Modern Pathology and Histopathology and several other international journals. Richard is a Past President of the Australasian Division of the International Academy of Pathology and is the current International Vice President representing Australasia on the International Academy of Pathology International Council. In 2019, Richard was the RCPA visiting Professor/Lecturer to Asia. Together with other MIA colleagues, Richard has been chief investigator on 3 consecutive 5 year NHMRC program grants (2006-2021) and has received multiple personal Fellowships from the NHMRC and CINSW. He has on multiple phase 1, 2 and 3 clinical trials and a frequently sought-after advisor to industry.