Tilman Ruff AO - Associate Professor at Nossal Institute for Global Health, University of Melbourne and Co-President of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
In this episode Jonathan chats with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tilman Ruff on his lifelong pursuit of a world free of nuclear weapons.
Tilman Ruff AO is an infectious diseases and public health physician, with particular focus on the urgent planetary health imperative to eradicate nuclear weapons. His work also addresses the broader public health dimensions of nuclear technology.
He is Associate Professor in the Nossal Institute for Global Health in the School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne. Dr Ruff has since 2012 been a co-president of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW, Nobel Peace Laureate 1985), and has previously served as Asia-Pacific Vice-President, Boston-based Consultant on Policy and Programs, and Board member. He is a co-founder and was founding international and Australian chair of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), and serves on the Committee of ICAN Australia. ICAN was 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". ICAN is the first Australian-born Nobel Peace Laureate.
Dr Ruff has been active in the Medical Association for Prevention of War (Australia) since 1982 and is a past national president. He was one of two civil society advisors to the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, the first civil society representative on Australian nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty delegations, and a civil society delegate to the landmark intergovernmental Conferences on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons in Norway, Mexico and Austria (2013-14). In 2017, he led the IPPNW delegation in New York through the negotiation of the historic United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Dr Ruff has clinical interests in immunisation and travel medicine, and was the inaugural head of travel medicine at Fairfield Hospital and then Royal Melbourne Hospital. He served as Australian Red Cross international medical advisor from 1996 to 2019. Dr Ruff worked on hepatitis B control and maternal and child health in Indonesia and Pacific island countries with the Australian and NZ government aid programs, Burnet Institute, UNICEF and WHO. He spent five years as regional medical director for an international vaccine manufacturer.
In June 2012, Dr Ruff was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia "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". In 2019, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) “For distinguished service to the global community as an advocate for nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, and to medicine.”