10 Questions – Professor Ian Frazer – scientist, Australian of the Year
World-renowned scientist and former Australian of the Year Professor Ian Frazer steps up to answer InQueensland Summer Reading’s 10 big questions.
1. Did anything good come out of 2020?
A spreading realisation that the post-modernists can’t make their “new truth”. happen just by saying that it will – rationalism is on the upswing!
2. What’s your favourite Christmas memory?
The excitement of waking up on Christmas morning to snow in the garden and presents under the tree as a child in Aberdeen Scotland.
3. Are you a summer or a winter person?
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I’m bi-polar– I swing from loving winter and ski-ing to loving summer and swimming off the beach.
4. How do you stay resilient during periods of change, like the year just gone?
I rely on the support of my wife Caroline, and on the pleasure I get from watching my grandchildren grow up and enjoy life despite all the challenges of which they’re unaware.
5. Who were your heroes of 2020?
Stay informed, daily
The healthcare professionals globally, who stoically and selflessly have responded to the challenge of Covid-19
6. Your secret ambition?
Was to be more ambitious and risk-taking, but now just to learn to be content with what I am.
7. Favourite end-of-year holiday spot?
Used to be Tangalooma when the kids were little, but now I prefer to be with friends and family, ski-ing in the Rockies
8. What are you hoping for next year?
Firstly and selfishly, that by year-end we’ll be able to safely travel wherever we choose, whenever we choose, and secondly, thinking more that we’ll realise that the quality of care we offer to the elderly and the disadvantaged in our society is so inappropriate that we will devote serious amounts of community resources to working out how to do it better, and then implement the findings as a number one priority.
9. Hot Christmas dinner, or cold?
After hosting one hot and humid traditional Christmas dinner in Queensland, we have stuck to seafood when at home, but still enjoy the more traditional fare if visiting the UK.
10. People/businesses to watch in 2021?
Companies developing health innovation and personalised medicine driven by big data.
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