Professor Natkunam Ketheesan
Professor in Biomedical Science (Infection & Immunity) - School of Science and Technology
Biography
Professor Ketheesan is an academic with interests in teaching, research and research training. He obtaining his undergraduate education at the Vinnitsa State Medical University (Ukraine), and went on to complete his MSc in Clinical Immunology and PhD at the University of Leeds (United Kingdom). After holding combined teaching and research academic positions at universities of Leeds, Western Australia, Queensland and at James Cook University, he joined University of New England in 2018 and is currently a tenured Professor in Biomedical Science (Infection and Immunity). He also holds adjunct professorial positions both in other Australian and overseas universities.
Ketheesan’s research focus is on investigating host-pathogen interactions in clinically relavent bacterial infections enabling the development of strategies to better combat infections. His group has developed novel preclinical models to determine host-pathogen interactions in rheumatic heart disease, melioidosis, tuberculosis and Q fever. His work has been funded by both international and national funding agencies including the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Australian Research Council. Ketheesan has published extensively(>140 publications; h-index 37; i10-index 99; annual citations in last 5 years of over 250) with multidisciplinary teams of over 225 co-authors and has delivered over 230 conference presentations and invited seminars.
During his tenure at Australian regional universities, he has supervised to completion over 50 graduate and post graduate researchers in multidisciplinary biomedical fields that overlap with immunology and infectious diseases. As a passionate educator, he contributes to the development and delivery of innovative teaching programmes both in Australia and overseas.
