Professor John Skerritt is Enterprise Professor in Health Research Impact at the University of Melbourne, and Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney. He has extensive research experience in pharmacology and immunology. Until April 2023 he was Deputy Secretary of the Australian Department of Health and Aged Care and concomitantly head of the Therapeutic Goods Administration. He is a member of the Boards of Medicines Australia and AusBiotech, chair of the Scientific Advisory Council of the UK-based Centre for Innovation in Regulatory Science and is a member of the Board of the Singapore-based Centre for Regulatory Excellence. He also played a major role in advising the Australian government on the establishment of a mRNA vaccines and medicines industry, and in the regulatory approval of vaccines during the SARS-CoV2 pandemic.

Dr John Skerritt is an outstanding and versatile Australian scientist and research manager. his early academic brilliance is attested by major awards. He conducted research for 20 years, innovatively applying a range of physical, chemical and immunological techniques to the food industry and to agriculture, leading to real and practical benefits in food processing and human health. He now manages 12 very senior scientists and economists in a $40 million research program on diverse areas of primary production, policy and economics, and develops high level agricultural research policy in an international scientific and political context.