Professor James McCluskey is the Assistant Vice Chancellor at the University of Melbourne following a period as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) between 2011-2023. In 2021, he acted as Provost of the University.
He trained in Perth as a physician and pathologist before embarking on a life of research into the workings of the immune system, initially at the US National Institutes of Health, and later at Monash University, Flinders University and since 1997 at The University of Melbourne. He has won a number of prizes for his research and has been a Clarivate Highly Cited researcher in Immunology since 2017. His research has focused on immune recognition, autoimmunity and antigen presentation.
He has served as a board director of multiple independent medical research institutes including WEHI, Florey, Burnet, St Vincent’s Institute and the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre Alliance. He is a foundation board member of the Atlantic Institute (Oxford). He is also a director of the Australian Friends of ASHA (a charity to improve life in Indian slums) and Trinity College Melbourne.
He established the South Australian node of the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry and for over 30 years has been a consultant immunologist in transplantation matching for Life Blood, the Australian Red Cross Blood Service. He led the development of the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity and co-chairs the Steering committee of the $650M Australian Institute for Infectious Disease. He also led the team that won $80M in grants from The Atlantic Philanthropies to help to establish the Atlantic Fellows for Social Equity program focused on indigenous leadership to effect social change.
He is a Fellow of both the Australian Academy of Science and Academy of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Science. He became an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2018.