SAHMRI’s Professor Tim Hughes has been named a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (AAS), one of the nation’s highest honours in the field of research science.

The coveted accolade places Prof Hughes among the country’s most distinguished scientists, elected by his peers for decades of ground-breaking cancer research.

“Being invited to join the Australian Academy of Science is a huge shock and a great thrill for me. I am incredibly honoured,” Prof Hughes said.

Head of the Department of Haematology at SA Pathology and Consultant Haematologist at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, Prof Hughes has been working on ways to beat blood cancer for nearly three decades.

Prof Hughes was inspired to take on the challenge of studying chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) after working alongside the world’s leading CML experts in the UK in the 1980s.

He went on to lay the foundation for the current CML program when he came to Adelaide in the 1990’s. Since that time, Prof Hughes has published more than 300 papers and his team has made major strides in reducing the burden of CML.

This progress has significantly influenced the way CML patients are managed worldwide.

“The past two decades has been an exciting time for our CML research team in Adelaide; finding ourselves at the forefront of understanding and treating this fascinating and challenging disease,” Prof Hughes said.

“We are proud to have played a significant part in transforming CML from a fatal disease to a treatable disease and are now focused on pathways to a cure.”

Professor Tim Hughes during Climb for a Cure in 2019

In and out of the lab, Prof Hughes has truly gone above and beyond in more ways than one in his pursuit of a cure for CML.

In 2019, he took on the extraordinary challenge of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, raising just shy of $20,000 for the International CML Foundation.

Prof Hughes is the passionate Theme Leader of Precision Cancer Medicine at SAHMRI and is as dedicated to nurturing the talented next generation of cancer researchers as he is to the cause.

“My focus today is mentoring the many incredibly smart and dedicated scientists and clinicians working at SAHMRI and across the precinct, to enable them to continue to push the boundaries on what we can achieve for patients with leukaemia and other cancers,” Prof Hughes said.

Prof Hughes joins SAHMRI Women & Kids Theme Leader, Professor Maria Makrides who was elected to the academy in 2019.