Stephen Kent

Professor Kent trained as an infectious diseases physician, immunologist and vaccine scientist in Melbourne and the USA. As a physician-scientist he is national leader in developing and testing vaccines and is internationally recognised in this important field.

Vaccine concepts tested in recent years have shown sufficient promise to progress into human clinical trials. Further, his lab has developed exciting leads on analysing immune responses to COVID-19, HIV and Influenza that provide unique insights into the usefulness of various immune responses. This in turn helps guide better vaccine design. Dr Kent's group has over 300 scientific publications. Dr Kent remains active in infectious diseases clinical medicine at the Alfred Hospital and Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, caring for people with HIV/AIDS and assisting in the clinical development of new vaccine and treatment strategies. Dr Kent manages a vibrant laboratory of Post-doctoral fellows, research assistants and students. Stephen was honoured to receive the Peter Doherty Outstanding PhD Supervisor award from the University of Melbourne and a National Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning, reflecting the good fortune he's had to have a great crop of PhD students and dedicated staff come through the lab. Dr Kent was elected to the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Science in 2018.