Michael A . Cowley PhD

Dr. Michael Cowley is Head of the Department of Physiology and was the founding director of the Monash Obesity & Diabetes Institute and a physiologist with a focus on obesity, diabetes, and metabolic disorders. He received his science degree from the University of Melbourne, and did his PhD at Prince Henry’s Institute of Medical Research at Monash Medical Center, before a post-doctoral fellowship at The Vollum Institute in Oregon. He was later an Assistant then Associate Scientist at Oregon National Primate Research Center in the USA. In 2008 he returned to Australia to Monash University. His work has mapped the neural circuits in the brain that sense nutrients and fat, to control appetite and body weight.

He has published more than 120 papers and chapters, is the inventor of 85 patents, and is the co-founder of Orexigen Therapeutics, a publicly listed (NASDAQ: OREX) San Diego biotech company where he served as the Chief Scientific Officer till December 2008. Michael is a Professor of Physiology at Monash University and a director of a primate contract research company. Michael has a significant focus on public outreach, the promotion of science in schools, and better metabolic health. He is a fellow of The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, a Veski Innovation Fellow, and in 2009 was awarded The Australian Science Ministers Prize for Australian Life Scientist of the Year and in 2014 the inaugural Jacques Miller Medal for Experimental BioMedicine from the Australian Academy of Science.