It is with great sadness that I inform you of the sudden passing last Friday of our much-valued colleague Dr Nick Wong. As many of you know Nick had recently left the school in September last year to take up a new opportunity with CSL to head and build their Translational Bioinformatics Team. He was recruited to the School in 2017 as the inaugural Lead Bioinformatician for the Bioinformatics Platform at the ARA Precinct, and in his time in the role did a fantastic job establishing this critical platform and was a critical enabler in a broad range of researchers work across the Precinct. This included being a key component of enabling papers in the high impact journals Blood, Genomics, Nature Communications, Leukaemia and Hippocampus, as well supervising and training multiple PhD and Honours students and post-doctoral fellows, in bioinformatics analysis, including running “hands on workshops” for participants from across the Precinct. He also engaged widely with research groups in Precinct partners, such as Alfred Health, The Baker Institute and The Burnet Institute, as well as with other bioinformaticians based in Clayton in the Bioinformatics Platform.
The scale of his contribution and role here is reflected in how hard it has proved to be to replace him since he has left the school. He will be greatly missed by many people in the School, Precinct and beyond. We are, however, very grateful for the tremendous work he did in his time with us, enabling with infinite patience researchers to access a new and rapidly evolving field for the future of personalised medicine. He made a lasting difference. We will share details of his memorial service when these are available.
Vale Nick Wong, and thank you.
Funeral arrangements below.
- Date: Thursday 16th February, 2.00pm to 4.00pm
- Memorial Service followed with light refreshments
- Venue: The Glasshouse, Olympic Park Oval, Olympic Blvd, Melbourne
