Internationally recognised sexual health epidemiologist Professor Eric Chow has received a 2024 Australian Academy of Science Gottschalk Medal, one of 22 annual honorific awards announced by the Academy today. The Gottschalk Medal honours the contributions to science by the late Professor A Gottschalk FAA and recognises outstanding research in the biomedical sciences by researchers up to 10 years after completing their PhD.
Professor Chow leads the Health Data Management and Biostatistics Unit and co-leads the Clinical Evaluation Unit at the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, and is a Professor in the School of Translational Medicine at Monash University. Professor Chow’s research focuses on developing novel interventions for preventing and controlling sexually transmitted infections (STI) in Australia. Since completing his PhD, Eric has become the second most published researcher globally in sexually transmitted infections and has received several awards and prizes including the prestigious 2022 Eureka Prize for Infectious Diseases Research, the 2020 Commonwealth Health Ministers Award and a 2019 NHMRC Research Excellence Award.
He was also named Australia’s top researcher in sex and sexuality by The Australian for 2024.
Professor Chow has made three significant findings in human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination research. He was the first researcher to show that female-only HPV vaccination reduced oncogenic HPV types in unvaccinated men due to herd protection from vaccinated women at a population level; the Australian gender-neutral HPV vaccination program has led to substantial and ongoing reductions in genital warts among Australian female and heterosexual male individuals, with a near eradication of genital warts in young individuals who received the vaccine at school; and the addition of the male HPV program in Australia led to a 70 per cent fall in the throat and anal oncogenic types HPV16, which can potentially reduce throat and anal cancer incidence.
These findings were all published in the prestigious journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases, and Professor Chow’s research has subsequently influenced global policies on the recommendation of international HPV vaccination programs.
Together with Professor Christopher Fairley, Professor Chow also discovered a new paradigm of gonorrhoea transmission. For more than 100 years, sex without condoms has been thought to be the main risk factor for contracting gonorrhoea. Professor Chow instead revealed that the throat is the main driver of transmission, opening up opportunities for exploring novel prevention and intervention strategies that target the throat.
He identified kissing and saliva as the main risk factors, discovered a single dose of mouthwash can inhibit the growth of gonorrhoea in the throat and conducted a randomised controlled trial to examine daily mouthwash use for gonorrhoea prevention.
Professor Chow also played a major role in addressing several infectious disease outbreaks. He was the first in Australia and one of very few researchers internationally to examine how COVID-19 impacted STIs. Victoria also had outbreaks of hepatitis A and meningococcal C disease in 2017, and more recently mpox (formerly monkeypox) in 2022. Professor Chow examined behavioural changes and evaluated the impact of vaccination campaigns during these outbreaks.
Professor Chow said that he was very pleased to receive the Gottschalk Award from the Australian Academy of Science. “I am honoured and humbled to receive this prestigious award from the Academy,” he said. “I would like to thank my mentors and colleagues at Melbourne Sexual Health Centre and Monash, as well as my collaborators who have contributed to these research projects. I am especially thankful to the community members who have generously provided their time and support to our research projects. I hope our work will continue to improve Australians’ sexual health and wellbeing.”
Dean of the Sub-Faculty of Translational Medicine and Public Health Professor Stephen Jane congratulated him on the award. “Professor Eric Chow is one of the most productive, insightful and hardworking researchers I have ever worked with”, he said. “His significant contributions to STI research are transformational and he should be very proud of his achievements. Eric’s research discoveries and leadership are reflected by his impressive track record and I am delighted that his efforts have been recognised with the awarding of the Gottschalk Medal.”