Rate My Professor Duncan Maskell

Professor Duncan Maskell is an Honorary Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne. A biochemist specialising in molecular microbiology and bacterial infectious diseases, he served as the 20th Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne from October 2018 until the conclusion of his term in early 2025. He holds a BA and a PhD from the University of Cambridge, where his doctoral thesis examined mechanisms of resistance and immunity to Salmonella infections.

Maskell began his academic career as a research scientist at Wellcome Biotech, followed by a research fellowship at the University of Oxford’s Institute of Molecular Medicine and a lectureship at Imperial College London. At the University of Cambridge he was appointed Marks & Spencer Professor of Farm Animal Health, Food Science and Food Safety in 1996, served as Head of the Department of Veterinary Medicine from 2004 to 2013 and Head of the School of Biological Sciences from 2013 to 2015, and was Senior Pro-Vice-Chancellor from 2015 to 2018. He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2011. His research has contributed to understanding of Salmonella, Bordetella and other bacterial pathogens, with key publications including studies on genome sequences of Bordetella species (2003) and multidrug-resistant Salmonella Typhimurium (2013), as well as the edited volume Salmonella Infections: Clinical, Immunological, and Molecular Aspects (2006). He became an Australian citizen in 2023.

Professional Email: null