Biographies
PROF NADIA ROSENTHAL
PhD 1981, Harvard Medical School, USA.
Postdoctoral research at the National Cancer Institute, USA.
Assistant Professor, Boston University Medical Center, USA.
Associate Professor, Massachusetts General Hospital, USA.
Chair in Cardiovascular Science, Imperial College London
Founding Director, Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, Monash University
Scientific Head, EMBL Australia
Born in the USA, Professor Nadia Rosenthal obtained her PhD in 1981 from Harvard Medical School and trained as a
postdoctoral fellow at NIH, then directed a biomedical research laboratory at Harvard Medical School, and served for
a decade at the New England Journal of Medicine as editor of the Molecular Medicine series. In 2001 she moved to
Rome to head the EMBL Mouse Biology Unit, and holds a Professorship of Cardiovascular Science at Imperial College
London. She is an EMBO member, with numerous awards and honors including the Ferrari-Soave Prize in Cell Biology
and Doctors Honoris Causa from the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris and the University of Amsterdam. She
spearheaded the election of Australia to EMBL as its first Associate Member, and in 2008 she founded the Australian
Regenerative Medicine Institute at Monash University, which serves as Headquarters for the EMBL Australia Partner
Laboratory Network. She is an NH&MRC Australia Fellow.
Professor Rosenthal’s research focuses on muscle and cardiac developmental genetics and the role of growth factors
and stem cells in tissue regeneration, with over 100 primary research articles and prominent reviews in high impact
international journals, including two stem cell reviews for Scientific American. She has attracted sponsored research
funding from major pharmaceutical companies including Amgen, Genzyme and Novartis for her translational studies
in stem cell and regenerative medicine.
Dr Rosemary Mardling
Rosemary Mardling is an astrophysicist who splits her time between the School of Mathematical Sciences at
Monash University, and the Astronomy Department of the University of Geneva where the first extrasolar
planet around a star like our Sun was discovered. Her research interests include studying the gravitational
interactions between planets, tides raised on stars and planets, and the formation of planets. She uses
mathematics and computers for her work, and through her Swiss collaboration, has recently become an
occasional planet hunter at the European Southern Observatory in La Silla, Chile
Prof. Ana Deletic, FEA, FTSE
Ana Deletic is a Professor in Water Engineering within the Civil Engineering Department of Monash University
in Australia. She is a Director of Monash Water for Liveability - an interdisciplinary Research Centre involving
70 researchers at Monash University. She was instrumental in establishing the Cooperative Research Centre
for Water Sensitive Cities – an Australia wide centre involving over 75 partners from industry and academia
with a budget of around $120 mil.
Ana is the world leader in integrated urban water management. She first became involved in this field of
research in the 1990s in Yugoslavia and Scotland. In 2003 she moved to Monash University to focus on the
seemingly intractable problem of how to remove harmful pollutants from urban stormwater, that is runoff
from paved surfaces. Since then, she has established the most published group in the world on stormwater
management issues. She led development of ground-breaking green stormwater treatment technologies
(known as stormwater biofilters or raingardens), contributing to the creation of more liveable and cooler cities.
The technology is adopted in Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, France and Israel. For example, over 10,000
rain gardens are being constructed in central Melbourne to protect the local estuary. Ana is currently focusing
on stormwater harvesting innovations, as well as socio-technical modelling of complex urban water systems.
Ana is Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE). She regularly
consults with government at all levels, serving on a number of advisory committees. In 2012, the Victorian
State Parliament awarded Ana the Victoria Prize for Science and Innovation (Physical Sciences). She is the first
woman to win this prestigious award in its 14 year history.