Prof Graeme Barnes & Prof Ruth Bishop

A former director of gastroenterology at the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne has been recognised for his distinguished service to medicine, particularly child gastrointestinal health, and to medical research.

Professor Graeme Barnes was awarded an AO in the General Division in the Queen’s Birthday 2020 Honours List.

Professor Barnes, also a senior principal research fellow at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) and an honorary professorial fellow at the University of Melbourne, was involved in landmark rotavirus research.

He was instrumental in the early 1970s in describing duodenal mucosal damage in children with gastroenteritis – work that ultimately led to the characterisation of the rotavirus by colleague Professor Ruth Bishop.

He also helped establish the efficacy of oral rehydration therapy in children with infectious gastroenteritis in the 1990s.

He is named as a co-inventor on an oral human neonatal rotavirus vaccine RV3.BB patent, and has been an advisor to the WHO rotavirus program.