Prof Bill Rawlinson AM is a Senior Medical Virologist and the Director of Virology at South Eastern Sydney and Illawarra Health Service. He is Director of the Area virology reference laboratory, a virology clinical trials unit, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) licensed laboratory testing organs donors for blood borne viruses, and the virology research laboratory (www.virologyresearch.unsw.edu.au). Prof Rawlinson completed his MBBS and BSc(Med) at the University of Sydney in 1983, then obtained his Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in Infectious Diseases, and subsequently specialised in virology, receiving his Fellowship of the Royal College of Pathologists Australasia in Microbiology. He obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK, in 1994, for his studies of the genomes of human and murine CMV. Prof Rawlinson is now a molecular virologist with particular scientific expertise in herpes viruses (CMV), hepatitis virus (HCV), enteroviruses, and respiratory viruses. His contributions to science includes new testing algorithms for common viral illnesses, sequencing and analysis of the murine CMV genome, unique studies of congenital CMV and the placenta, unique data on endogenous viruses and cancer, and he continues to directly supervise projects within these areas. Prof Rawlinson has received multiple awards in science, and is on advisory boards to the NSW and Commonwealth Departments of Health.