Inaugural David Cooper Lecture (UNSW)
“From the HIV/AIDS epidemic to the COVID-19 pandemic, what have we learnt and what do we still need to learn?”
Dr Anthony S. Fauci
Director, US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Date: Wednesday, 14 April, 6.30pm AEST
Venue: Online via UNSW Centre for Ideas
Entry: No charge
Registration: through Eventbrite is required
All are welcome
About this event
Whilst the COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating in the USA, Dr Anthony S. Fauci has remained a voice of authority and reason, bringing scientific evidence to the fore.
Throughout an extraordinary career as a scientist, a physician and a public servant, Dr Anthony S. Fauci has been an adviser to seven US presidents on HIV/AIDS, and domestic and global health issues. A key figure in the global response to HIV/AIDS, his experience of this epidemic has informed his career ever since.
As the world struggles to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr Anthony S. Fauci sits down with Tegan Taylor, co-host of the ABC’s Coronacast, to discuss the past, the present and the future – from what we learned from the HIV/AIDS epidemic to what the ongoing impact of COVID-19 will be.
The inaugural David Cooper Lecture honours the legacy of the Kirby Institute’s Founding Director. Professor David Cooper AC, who passed away in 2018, was an internationally renowned scientist and HIV clinician, who laid the foundations for Australia’s ongoing global leadership in the fight against the global HIV epidemic.
This event is co-presented by the Kirby Institute, the UNSW Centre for Ideas and UNSW Medicine & Health.
Speakers
Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. is Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, where he oversees an extensive research portfolio focused on infectious and immune-mediated diseases. As the long-time chief of the NIAID Laboratory of Immunoregulation, Dr Fauci has made many seminal contributions in basic and clinical research and is one of the world’s most cited biomedical scientists. He was one of the principal architects of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a program that has saved millions of lives throughout the developing world.
Tegan Taylor (Chairperson) is co-host of the ABC’s Coronacast, the multi-award-winning daily podcast about the coronavirus, and a health reporter in the ABC Science Unit, where she reports on topics from stem cells to fad diets and, yes, coronavirus. In 2020, Coronacast won a Walkley award and the Eureka Prize for Science Journalism. Tegan was previously a producer on the ABC’s national digital newsdesk, where she curated the ABC News homepage and commissioned, wrote and edited news stories. Before that, she was a journalism lecturer at The University of Queensland and, long ago, a newspaper reporter at the Queensland Times in Ipswich.
About Professor David Cooper
David Cooper AC FRSN FAA FAHMS FRACP FRCP was an eminent Australian HIV/AIDS researcher, immunologist, Professor at the University of New South Wales, and Director of the Kirby Institute. He and Professor Ron Penny diagnosed the first case of HIV in Australia. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of NSW and the winner of its most presigious award, the James Cook Medal, in 2016. He passed away in March 2018 after a short illness.
15 May 2025
RSL Mittagong, Carrington Room 
