John Funder MD, BS, PhD, FRACP, FRCP, LLD

Professor John Funder joined Prince Henry’s Medical Research Centre (now Hudson Institute of Medical Research) in 1973 as a Senior Research Fellow, and he later became a Senior Principal Research Fellow and Deputy Director. In 1990, he joined Baker Institute in Melbourne as Director and upon his ‘retirement’ in 2001 he rejoined Prince Henry’s Institute as a Senior Fellow.

From 2008 to 2011, Prof Funder was Director of Research Strategy at Southern Health (now Monash Health), Victoria's largest health service.

For the last 40 years, Prof Funder’s research has been focused on aldosterone, the salt-retaining (mineralocorticoid) hormone, and the role of the mineralocorticoid receptor in organs such as the kidney.

His clinical and basic studies at the Hudson Institute of Medical Research have demonstrated the roles of both hormones and receptors in hypertension and heart failure.

Prof Funder has served as a link between endocrinology and cardiology and is internationally acknowledged as leading an exciting new era of hitherto unexpected roles for mineralocorticoid receptors across a spectrum of disease states. He has published more than 500 scientific papers.