On March 17, 2014, I interviewed Professor Sir Gustav V.J. Nossal AC (b. 1931) in an office at the University of Melbourne, opposite the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI), an institute that is, in a sense, his monument. Ebulliently and enthusiastically, Nossal spoke about his medical career and his role in the development of immunology in the 1950s and 1960s. Additionally, he reflected on styles of immunological investigation at the WEHI during the period he directed it (1965--1996), as successor to Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet. I had arranged the interview in order to clarify issues relating to the history of autoimmunity, the subject of a book I was working on, but conversation ranged far more widely.1 Even in his eighties, Nossal conveys an infectious delight in scientific research. Australian of the Year in 2000, a certified living national treasure, Nossal continues to contribute to scientific policy making and public life more generally. He surely is the only person for whom both a Melbourne high school and a global health institute are named.
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