Distinguished clinician, academic and military doctor, Professor John Pearn, AM, RFD, KStJ, has been named The University of Queensland’s Alumnus of the Year for 2004.
The Alumnus of the Year award honours UQ graduates who have achieved excellence in their chosen fields and have acquired outstanding reputations among their peers. Previous winners include Nobel Laureate Professor Peter Doherty and Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush.
Professor Pearn received his award at the 2004 Courting the Greats lunch held at Customs House today (Thursday, October 28), and hosted by UQ Chancellor Sir Llew Edwards.
Also honoured at the lunch were UQ’s 2004 Young Alumnus of the Year, Ipswich businessman Martin Sammut, and 2004 International Alumnus of the Year, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation consultant, Suganya Boonprasirt.
Professor Pearn achieved first-class honours in medicine at UQ and also graduated in science. He holds double higher doctorates in Medicine (UQ) and Philosophy (London).
Surgeon-General of the Australian Defence Forces from 1997until 2000, Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health at UQ since 1986 and Honorary Professor at the University of Sydney since 1999, Professor Pearn has served as a doctor and educator across five continents.
John Pearn has had a second career in military medicine, rising progressively by promotion from his first appointment as a Medical Officer in 1 Casualty Clearing Station based in Brisbane. His final rank was that of Major General; and he served as Surgeon General in Australia for three years.
Since seeing active duty as the Specialist Physician to the Australian and New Zealand Forces in South Vietnam, Professor Pearn has never shied away from world trouble spots.
He served as a consultant physician in Papua New Guinea – initially in 1966, and subsequently, as part of the Australian Emergency Response as Surgeon –General following a devastating tsunami of July 1997 – and also in the United Nations Forward Surgical Team in Rwanda from 1994 until 1995.
Professor Pearn became Regimental Medical Officer with the Queensland University Regiment in 1966. He has since undertaken missions on behalf of a number of organisations including the World Health Organisation, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, and Rotary International. For his service to children, lifesaving and drowning research, he was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal in 2001.
He established the first hospital genetics clinics in Queensland at the Royal Children’s Hospital and Royal Women’s Hospital in 1974; and was a co-founder, later President and then Honorary Life Member of the Human Genetics Society of Australasia.
A prolific author, Professor Pearn has 33 books and more than 170 book chapters and more than 500 published papers to his name.
Martin Sammut is a successful businessman and philanthropist based in Ipswich.
He graduated with a Bachelor of Economics from UQ in 1990 and a Bachelor of Business from QUT in 1992, majoring in accounting.
In 1998, at age 28, Mr Sammut formed his own accountancy company and now has more than 1800 clients.
His increasing knowledge and love of Ipswich and its community has led him to invest in the community, in more ways than one.
In 1992, he and his wife Christine planned and built a local childcare centre, which has an excellent reputation and the highest accreditation level.
Mr Sammut also purchased the landmark Bodega Restaurant and the surrounding property. It is now home to his accountancy firm, a restaurant, art gallery, boutique nursery, hair and beauty salon, and professional offices.
Mr Sammut’s community involvement includes a two-year stint as Treasurer of Ipswich First – a business association that promoted using local businesses and services –and a donation to the Ipswich Hospice.
Last year, he won the Ipswich Chamber of Commerce 2003 Willowbank Developments Young Business Person of The Year Award.
During her career, Suganya Boonprasirt has worked as a planner in Japan, the United States, Malaysia, Australia and India.
She helped develop housing and social welfare plans for low-income people in New Delhi and Bombay in India, before undertaking training as urban planner with the Brisbane City Council.
She completed this training in 1991 and graduated with a Master of Social Planning and Development from the University of Queensland in 1992.
Since then, she has produced planning documents for the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration and the City of Bangkok. She went on to become Assistant Director with the Department of Policy and Planning at the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration.
Ms Boonprasirt also was responsible for coordinating Bangkok’s cooperation, under the Sister City Relationships Program, with the city governments of Beijing, Washington DC, Moscow, Budapest, St Petersburg, Brisbane, Manila and Jakarta.
In addition, she has contributed to international seminars, meetings and conferences concerning urban development issues.
Media contacts: Professor Pearn (telephone: 07 3365 5323 or 07 3365 5338), Mr Sammut (telephone 07 3812 3400, email: enquiries@martinsammut.com), Ms Boonprasirt (telephone: 0011 66 2 573 3883, mobile: 0011 66 2 990 6690, email: suganyab_bma@hotmail.com), or Shirley Glaister at UQ Communications (telephone: 07 3365 1120, email: s.glaister@uq.edu.au).
