David Cooper lecture with Peter Doherty

In conversation with Peter Doherty: Nobel laureate in Medicine

2026 David Cooper Lecture | Celebrating 40 years of the Kirby Institute

Peter Doherty was made famous worldwide when he won the 1996 Nobel Prize in Medicine with Swiss colleague Rolf Zinkernagel, for their discovery on the way the body recognises and rejects foreign molecules through killer T cells. This revelation has led to ongoing improvements in treating cancer and organ transplants. Peter is also recognised and respected for his ongoing efforts to share his love of science and impart his insatiable curiosity for learning with the world.

This year the David Cooper Lecture will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Kirby Institute by hosting Australian immunologist and Nobel laureate Peter Doherty in conversation with journalist and presenter, Natasha Mitchell. Together, they’ll discuss the most challenging medical issues of our times, Peter’s fascinating career and inspirations and how any citizen scientist can follow in the footsteps of this renowned laureate professor with an evidence-based worldview.

This event is co-presented by the UNSW Centre for Ideas, the Kirby Institute and UNSW Medicine & Health.

About the speaker

Peter Doherty is an Australian immunologist and pathologist who received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Rolf Zinkernagel in 1996 for illuminating the nature of immune surveillance and the biological role of the transplant system. The Nobel award, along with being the Australian of the Year’ in 1997, led to an increasing involvement in public science communication, both in his own area of viral pathogenesis and immunity and in topics related to environmental sustainability and climate change. After working on infection and immunity for 60 years, he moved to emeritus status at the University of Melbourne in July 2023. 

Peter is the author of many books, including The Beginner’s Guide to Winning the Nobel Prize: A Life in Science (2005), Sentinel Chickens: What Birds Tell Us About Our Health and the World (2012), Pandemics: what everyone needs to know (2013), The Knowledge Wars (2015), The Incidental Tourist (2018), An Insider’s Plague Year (2021) and most recently Empire, War, Tennis and Me (2022).

For more about the event and venue information, please visit the UNSW Centre for Ideas website.