PRofessor Andrew Steer

Professor Andrew Steer (MBBS BMedSci MPH FRACP PhD FAHMS) is Director of Infection, Immunity and Global Health at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne, where he also leads the Tropical Diseases Research Group and co-chairs the Melbourne Children’s Global Health initiative. He is a paediatric infectious diseases physician at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia.

Prof Steer is Professorial Research Fellow in the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Melbourne. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Medical Sciences. In 2024, he was awarded the Sir Gus Nossal Medal for Global Health from the Australian Academy of Science. In 2022, Prof Steer was awarded the 2022 Bailey K. Ashford Medal from the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene for distinguished work in tropical medicine. In 2020, Prof Steer was awarded the inaugural Jian Zhou Medal for translational medical science in 2020 from the Academy of Science.

Prof Steer has an established international profile in Streptococcus pyogenes research, and in field trials for the control of tropical diseases including rheumatic heart disease, scabies and lymphatic filariasis. Prof Steer is the originator of the human challenge model for S. pyogenes pharyngitis and holds leadership positions related to S. pyogenes vaccine development including Ex-Officio President of the Lancefield International Society for Streptococci and Streptococcal Diseases and Co-Chair of the Strep A Global Vaccine Consortium (SAVAC).