Professor Aileen Plant was a medical epidemiologist and Deputy CEO of the AB-CRC in Perth. She was also one of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) leading experts in disease outbreak investigation and Professor of International Health at Curtin University of Technology. Sadly, Aileen passed away while working in Jakarta on 27 March, 2007. In 2008, Curtin Unversity and the AB-CRC established the Aileen Plant Memorial Lecture in honour of Aileen’s memory. An In Memorium page for Aileen can be found here. 2008 Inaugural Aileen Plant Memorial Lecture 'Dilemmas in Public Health: From Smallpox Eradication to SARS, Avian Influenza and Polio Eradication' Dr David Heymann Assistant Director-General of Health Security and Environment at the WHO and special representative of the Director-General for Polio Eradication, WHO, Geneva Perth, April 2008   The AB-CRC and Curtin University were fortunate to secure special guest speaker Dr David Heymann, Assistant Director-General of Health Security and Environment at the WHO and special representative of the Director-General for Polio Eradication for the event. Dr Heymann is a medical epidemiologist who spent 13 years in sub-Saharan Africa while working at the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Professor Aileen Plant

He has been described by The Lancet as “WHO’s public health guru”, and is credited with helping discover Ebola and Legionnaire’s diseases, eliminating smallpox and stopping the spread of SARS. Dr Heymann was a close colleague and friend of Aileen, working with her often through her collaborations with the WHO and for six months while she was on secondment at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Dr Heymann gave a fantastic lecture titled 'Dilemmas in Public Health: From Smallpox Eradication to SARS, Avian Influenza and Polio Eradication' in which he shared many interesting stories about his work with infectious disease, as well as his work with Aileen.  For those of you who were unable to attend the lecture, audio and video files are available online. Tribute from Stephen Prowse, CEO: Aileen was a leader in her field of medical epidemiology and a person of great compassion. She was passionate about her work and travelled extensively, often with great risk to herself, to help people and countries in need of her expertise. In recognition of her leadership during the SARS epidemic Aileen was awarded the National Medal of Honour by the Vietnamese Government. She was a very warm, generous person with a great sense of humour, who made a major contribution to the success of the AB-CRC. I worked closely with Aileen for the last three and a half years in her role as Deputy CEO of the AB-CRC. Despite her huge workload she always made time to respond to my requests for advice and guidance. She was my first source of advice in dealing with difficult issues, always providing wise counsel. Her depth of knowledge of disease, her unique insights and communication skills were immense and will be sorely missed. On behalf of the AB-CRC I extend our sympathy to her family.