College Honour Roll

Born to Heather and Fred Dawson, Mark Dawson is one of four siblings. He attended Salesian College between 1987-1992, during which time he was an active member of the school community as Class Captain, School Prefect, a member of the Senior Leadership team and the College Soccer and Volleyball teams. Mark visibly excelled in English, leading the Debating team as Captain, representing the school in State Public Speaking contests as well as being an active College volunteer in the St Vincent De Paul Society.

Tertiary education for Mark commenced at Melbourne University, where he studied Medicine with Honours. Ranked in the top 10 students (out of 220) for his MBBS degree at the University of Melbourne,Mark was one of only eight Australians and the first doctor to be award a General Sir John Monash Scholarship. Awarded a Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Scholarship, he was invited to attend University of Cambridge for his PhD studies. Mark ranked as the top candidate in the United Kingdom for a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellowship.

At each stage of his career (PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow and Principal Investigator) Mark’s research has led to a landmark scientific discovery, which has been published in the world’s most prestigious and important scientific academic journal Nature (2009, 2011 & 2015). These discoveries have helped establish new understandings about the development and maintenance of leukaemia. They have also helped pioneer new treatments that are currently entering the clinic.

Married to wife, Dr Sarah-Jane Dawson, also a leading clinical-researcher at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, they have two sons, Noah and Jack.

Mark’s believes his most significant learnings from Salesian College have been perseverance, resilience and optimism.