Professor Melissa Little

Brisbane hosted its last function for the year with Professor Melissa Little as guest speaker. A mixture of private and public sector senior legal counsel heard Melissa speak about her career journey to date. She also spoke about how she juggles her career and family life with two children at high school.

Professor Little is the Chief Scientific Officer for the Australian Stem Cell Centre and the Group Leader of the Renal Development and Disease Laboratory at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB), The University of Queensland (UQ) and also a Founding Scientist and Director of Nephrogenix Pty Ltd. She has contributed significantly to the understanding of childhood kidney cancer and now focuses on developing stem cell technology for use in kidney regeneration.

Throughout her career, Professor Little’s achievements have been recognised by awards such as the Australian Academy of Sciences Gottschalk Medal in Medical Sciences (2004), the GlaxoSmithKline Award for Research Excellence (2005), and the Smart State Smart Women Award (2006). In 2006, she was awarded a prestigious Eisenhower Fellowship, which recognised her contribution to both the commercial and academic sectors.