The Australian School of Parasitology: Current Status and Prospects

Abstract

The proceedings of a previous conference on parasitology in the United States,and the other contributions in this volume on the more global picture, contain a wealth of considered opinion of what the discipline of parasitology and its various subspecialties are all about. Because of this it may be pertinent for me to focus on a topic in which I can relay some firsthand information, that is, provide an update on the Australian School of Parasitology.' I hasten to emphasize that this analysis is through the eyes of a relative newcomer to the field. On the threshold of the biotechnology era, it may be useful to examine parasitology, and essentially research in parasitology, in this one corner of the globe. Are Australian parasitologists well placed to contribute to the projected revolution in biomedicine and to the continued strengthening of the discipline of parasitology in terms of both the accumulation of fundamental biological knowledge and practical outputs of research? Will we be able to attract the brightest and best of the medical, veterinary, and science graduates into this expanding field of research?