Professor Berkovic elected to The Royal Society Fellowship

The Director of the Epilepsy Research Centre and the Austin Health's Comprehensive Epilepsy Program, Professor Sam Berkovic, has been elected to the world's oldest scientific academy, The Royal Society, placing him in illustrious company.

By being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, Professor Berkovic has joined an esteemed group of around 1400 scientists which include Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Stephen Hawking and Paul Nurse. Previous Fellows have included Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Dorothy Hodgkin.

The Royal Society is the world's oldest scientific academy in continuous existence, and has been at the forefront of enquiry and discovery since its foundation in 1660.

Many of you will be familiar with Professor Berkovic's work but for those that aren't, he was responsible for discovering the first gene for epilepsy in 1995 and he and his colleagues have been involved in the discovery or co-discovery of most of the known epilepsy genes since.

These genetic discoveries have changed thinking about the causes of epilepsy and continues to have a major impact on research into epilepsy and on strategies for new treatments.

By being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, Professor Berkovic has joined the most eminent scientists of the day, having been elected by peer review for life and entitled to use FRS after his name. There are currently more than 60 Nobel Laureates amongst the Society's Fellows and Foreign Members.

We are extremely privileged to have retained Professor Berkovic for over 20 years and under his leadership, the Comprehensive Epilepsy Program at Austin Health has become world-renowned and attracts research fellows and trainees from around the globe all wanting to join the program to have the opportunity to work alongside him. I'm sure everyone at Austin Health joins me in congratulating Professor Berkovic on this remarkable achievement.

Brendan Murphy

Chief Executive Officer

Austin Health