Tilman RUFF

Bio

Tilman Ruff is Co-President, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW, Nobel Peace Prize 1985); and was founding international and Australian Chair of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize “for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons", the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Inaugural head of travel medicine at Fairfield and Royal Melbourne Hospitals; Dr Ruff worked on hepatitis B control, immunisation and maternal and child health in Indonesia and Pacific island countries with the Australian and New Zealand government aid programs, Burnet Institute, UNICEF and WHO. He documented links between outbreaks of ciguatera fish poisoning and nuclear testing in the Pacific. He was vaccines regional medical director for GSK, a founding member of the WHO Western Pacific Hepatitis B Immunisation Expert Resource Panel, and Australian Red Cross international medical advisor 1996 - 2019.

Past president of the Medical Association for Prevention of War (Australia), Dr Ruff received a national honour (AM) in 2012 “for service to the promotion of peace as an advocate for the abolition of nuclear weapons, and to public health through the promotion of immunisation programs in the South-East Asia - Pacific region”, and a further honour (AO) in 2019.