Richard Charles Nairn, Foundation Professor of Pathology and Immunology at Monash University

Richard Charles Nairn was the Founding Professor of Pathology and Immunology at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, from 1963 to 1984. He built an outstanding teaching and research department and inaugurated the first Australian diagnostic laboratory in clinical immunology based at the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne. As the first Chief Examiner in Immunology for the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA) and first Chair of the Joint Specialist Advisory Committee in Immunology for the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) and the RCPA, he initiated and guided the early years of laboratory and clinical immunology in Australasia. His contributions to immunopathology, particularly in cancer immunology and the technology of immunofluorescence were significant, and he was an excellent Editor and the Associate Editor of Pathology for 17 years. Richard Nairn's legacy to Australian pathology and the RCPA is the vibrant specialty of clinical immunology. © 1999 Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia.