We were deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Emeritus Professor Michael Alpers AO CSM FAA FRS (St Mark’s 1953-54).

Honoured internationally as a “pioneering scientist and compassionate humanitarian”, and most famous for his work in Papua New Guinea (PNG) on the disease kuru and his transformative role as Director of the PNG Institute of Medical Research, Professor Alpers led a remarkable life in service of others.

Michael Philip Alpers was born in Adelaide on 21 August 1934. He attended St Peter’s College, where he excelled academically, in many extracurricular activities, and in leadership. Awarded the Da Costa Open Scholarship in 1949, he was Dux of the school in 1951, winning the Young Exhibition.

A School Prefect in 1951 and 1952, and School Captain in 1952, he played in the first XVIII and the second XI, and was involved in the Dramatic, Science, Music, Debating, and Literary Societies. He later recollected “the excitement of science” at school, but “it wasn’t only science: I was equally passionate about literature, language and history”. These broad interests continued throughout his life and helped to shape his approach to the cultural and community context of the diseases he studied.

As Michael neared the end of his secondary education, his father (Dr Philip Alpers) wrote to the Master of St Mark’s, Dr Archibald Grenfell Price, requesting vocational counselling to help Michael choose a degree to study at the University of Adelaide. Those Dr Price consulted recommended that Michael study for the Bachelor of Science (Mathematical Physics) and Dr Alpers thanked the Master for “your kind assistance and personal interest re vocational guidance and your interview with Professor Green in reference to mathematical physics”.

While studying mathematical physics at the University of Adelaide, Michael was a resident student at St Mark’s in 1953-54. He was joined by his younger brother, John Henry “Jack” Alpers, at the College in 1954 when Jack commenced studies in medicine.

Mick Alpers was actively involved in College life, and is warmly remembered by College contemporaries to this day. As his partner, Professor Deborah Lehmann AO, has recently said, “he enjoyed his time at St Mark’s immensely and made lifelong friends there”. These included, among others, those who came from Western Australia to Adelaide to begin medical training before there was a medical school in Western Australia.

At St Mark’s Mick was member of the Chapel Committee and the Library Committee and played in the College XVIII, earning Football Colours in 1954. In the University he served on the Student Representative Council and in the University Regiment.

Completing the Bachelor of Science in 1955, Michael went to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, on a Makin Scholarship. On arrival in Cambridge, after a brief discussion with his tutor, he switched from mathematics to medicine. On his graduation from Cambridge in 1957 (M.A.), he returned to the University of Adelaide to continue his medical studies and graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery in 1961.

As a medical student in Adelaide, Michael read a news article that sparked an interest and set his remarkable career in motion: it detailed an obscure neurological disease called kuru that was causing the deaths of hundreds of Fore people in Papua New Guinea’s Eastern Highlands Province.

Equipped with his multi-disciplinary training and eager to delve into the mystery of kuru, Michael set off for PNG, taking on a research doctor role at the Okapa patrol post with the Department of Public Health in New Guinea. Michael served as a research officer in kuru research there in 1961-63, continuing this work as a visiting scientist at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, in 1964-67, and a research fellow in the department of microbiology at the University of Western Australia in 1968-76, making annual field trips to PNG.

In 1977, Michael became Director of the PNG Institute of Medical Research. He served in that role until 2000, before returning to Perth where he became the John Curtin Distinguished Professor of International Health at Curtin University, serving also for some time as a senior scientist at the Medical Research Council Prion Unit at University College London.

The nature and significance of Michael’s work on kuru is well summarised by the Royal Society in London, which awarded him the high honour (rare for an Australian) of election as a Fellow (FRS) in 2008:

“Michael Alpers combined a sensitive understanding of the isolated Fore people in Papua New Guinea with his medical training to reveal how the degenerative brain disease kuru was transmitted. His findings are of central importance in understanding related prion diseases, including BSE [bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly known as mad cow disease] and Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease.

“Collaborating in the 1960s [in PNG and the US] with Carleton Gajdusek, who later won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Michael collected samples of brain tissue from deceased victims in their villages. Their experiments confirmed that women and children contracted kuru through the recently outlawed funerary ritual of eating the brains of dead relatives. Michael continued to monitor the population: the last death from kuru occurred in 2009.”

Under his leadership from 1977 to 2000, Michael and his colleagues transformed the PNG Institute of Medical Research “from a dying institution to one of world renown”. He was known to mentor and train many young researchers in culturally competent ways of advancing knowledge, and he was generous in his support for the peoples, including the children, of the regions in which he worked.

At the PNG Institute of Medical Research Professor Alpers established multidisciplinary research programs in the major health problems of PNG, namely pneumonia, malaria and filariasis, malnutrition, enteric diseases and sexual health. As a scholar of science and the humanities, including anthropology, he captured the imagination of authors and filmmakers who documented his ground-breaking approach through books and films.

Among many other honours recognising his outstanding work, Michael was elected a Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences, which promotes the advancement of science in developing countries, in 1991. His work has been the subject of academic study, such as the piece found here.

In 2005, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) “for service to medical science as a leading international researcher in the fields of tropical medicine and public health, including research on the disease Kuru, and for contributions to improving health and economic development in Papua New Guinea”. In 2008, the year in which he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in London, Michael was made a Companion of the Papua New Guinea Order of the Star of Melanesia (CSM).

In 2011, Michael was recognised by the University of Adelaide with a Distinguished Alumni Award (for which he was nominated by St Mark’s College), and in 2012 with “the degree of Doctor of the University (honoris causa) as a person who has made distinguished creative contributions in the service of society”.

In 2012, Michael was also elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA). An interview he gave for the Academy of Science is particularly interesting, and may be found here.

In 2020, Michael was awarded the Medal of The Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science.

Michael had retained warm links with St Mark’s friends and with the College over the decades from his time as a resident student in 1953-54. In 2011, he was recognised by St Mark’s as a Distinguished Collegian. He loyally attended College reunions whenever he could and was a generous annual donor to support St Mark’s students.

We most recently enjoyed the delightful company of Michael and Deborah at our Perth reunion in September this year, where the Head of College, Professor Don Markwell AM, had a warm and engaging conversation with Michael about his time at St Mark’s and his remarkable work on kuru.

Professor Alpers passed away peacefully in Perth on 3 December 2024, aged 90.

Since his death, many institutions with which he was connected have paid warm tribute to Michael, including the profound impact of his work. These include the Kirby Institute at the University of New South Wales, the Kids Research Institute Australia, and the Burnet Institute.

A family tribute on his passing fittingly described Michael:

“A loving partner, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, brother, uncle, brother-in-law and dear friend to many. A great humanitarian, a champion for all, for science and the environment, for art and music. He touched so many with his wisdom and love and will be greatly missed by his family in Australia, Papua New Guinea and beyond.”

Our deepest condolences to Deborah and to Michael’s children and all their family members on the loss of a man whose warmth was known by all he encountered, and whose legacy will endure, including in the hearts of those he helped and mentored.