Professor Bryan Williams is Emeritus Director and Distinguished Scientist at the Hudson Institute of Medical Research and the Department of Molecular and Translational Science, Monash University. He also serves as Scientific Director, Office of Strategic Alliances and Technology Development, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic USA.

Professor Williams received his PhD from the Department of Microbiology at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. Following postdoctoral training at the National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, London, he held faculty positions at the University of Toronto and the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada. He was Chairman of the Department of Cancer Biology at the Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, USA, from 1991 until joining the Hudson Institute of Medical Research as Director in 2006.

Professor Williams has a distinguished research career in the areas of innate immunity and cancer genetics and biology. He has made major contributions to our understanding of the antiviral mechanisms of actions of interferons, advancing their therapeutic utility. His discoveries in the 2-5A-RNaseL pathway, cloning and characterisation of protein kinase R, and signalling pathways activated by interferons and innate immune activation by small interfering RNAs, have opened new therapeutic opportunities.

He received the 1990 Milstein Award from the International Society for Interferon Research, in recognition of his contributions to advancing interferon research for the treatment of human diseases. He was elected as an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1997 and served as President of the International Society for Interferon and Cytokine Research from 1998 to 1999. In 2005, he shared the Maurice Saltzman Award from the Mt Sinai Health Care Foundation, for his leadership contribution to the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, and in 2006 the Dolph Adams Award from the Journal of Leukocyte Biology. In 2008, he received the Boltzmann Award for international research collaboration, awarded by the European Cytokine Society. In 2013, he was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.

Professor Williams is the Deputy Chair of the Board of Pacific Edge Ltd, and on the Boards of Pacific Edge Pty Ltd, Pacific Edge Singapore Ltd, Pacific Edge USA, Catherics Pty Ltd and EnGeneIC Pty Ltd. He is Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Co-Chair of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Hope Funds for Cancer Research Foundation (Newport, RI, USA).