The Kirby Institute congratulates Professor Andrew Grulich who has been elected to represent Asia and the Pacific Islands on the International AIDS Society (IAS) Governing Council.
IAS leads collective action on every front of the global HIV response through its membership base, scientific authority and convening power, and coordinates the world’s most prestigious HIV conferences.
Professor Grulich leads the Kirby Institute’s Population and Prevention theme and the HIV Epidemiology and Prevention Program and has worked in the field of HIV for over 25 years.
He has had a significant contribution to the field of HIV prevention, leading many large, collaborative, and multidisciplinary studies. These studies include the Opposites Attract study, which showed the effectiveness of treatment as prevention in serodiscordant homosexual couples, providing an essential piece of evidence that an undetectable viral load means HIV is untransmissible to an HIV negative partner, which underpins the global Undetectable = Untransmittable (U=U) policy position.
He also led the Kirby Institute’s EPIC NSW study, which unequivocally demonstrated the efficacy of rapid rollout of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) on the incidence of HIV infection at a population level in NSW.
“Professor Grulich’s election to the IAS Governing Council reflects his extraordinary leadership, commitment and passion for scientific discovery and his belief that access to high quality health care is a human right,” said Professor Anthony Kelleher, Director of the Kirby Institute. “It is a fantastic opportunity for the Kirby Institute to have one of our leaders contribute to global HIV science through IAS, and Professor Grulich will be an exemplary representative for our region, especially as we navigate the complexities of HIV and COVID-19 over the coming years.”
Professor Grulich will serve on the Governing Council for four years. The full list of new IAS governing council members can be accessed here.