Rate My Professor Geoff Farrell

Emeritus Professor Geoff Farrell is Professor of Hepatic Medicine in the Australian National University School of Medicine and Psychology. He graduated in medicine from the University of Tasmania in 1970, obtaining MBBS and MD degrees. Following training in gastroenterology and hepatology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital under Neil Gallagher and at Royal Brisbane Hospital under Lawrie Powell, he held an NHMRC CJ Martin Fellowship for postdoctoral research at the University of California, San Francisco with Rudi Schmid and John Gollan. Returning to Sydney in 1980, he established the Liver Research Group at Westmead Hospital, directing The Storr Liver Unit from 1993 until January 2006. At ANU, he has been Professor of Hepatic Medicine in the Medical School and Honorary Professor in Gastroenterology and Hepatology, as well as Head of the Liver Research Unit at Canberra Hospital. He served as Head of the Department of Medicine at the University of Sydney from 1996 to 1997, President of the Australian Society for Medical Research in 1987, and President of the Gastroenterological Society of Australia from 2000 to 2001. As Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology until December 2012, he increased its impact factor from 1.6 to 3.3. Professor Farrell has contributed to teaching ANU medical students and supervised more than 25 doctoral research students (PhD or MD), eight of whom collectively won 10 highly competitive Young Investigator Awards.

His research focuses on non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, ischemia-reperfusion injury, hepatocellular carcinoma, viral hepatitis, and drug-induced liver injury. He has published four books, including the first on Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and its second edition in 2013, approximately 230 scientific papers, and more than 150 reviews, chapters, and editorials. His publications have an H-index greater than 60, with over 40 articles cited more than 100 times (five cited over 500 times) and an average of 33 citations per paper; 22 articles have prompted editorials or comments. Professor Farrell has received 28 NHMRC project grants, along with an NHMRC Program Grant, CCRE, and NIH RO1 grant. Major awards include the Distinguished Research Prize of the Gastroenterological Society of Australia in 2003, the Eric Susman Prize for Medical Research from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 1988, the inaugural Hy Zimmerman Lecture at the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases meeting in 2002, the Georges Brohée Medal Lecture at the World Congress of Gastroenterology in Shanghai in 2013, six other named international orations, and election as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences in 2016.