Two leading NSW Health Pathology clinicians and researchers have been recognised in the 2026 King’s Birthday Honours, celebrating decades of dedication to improving the lives of patients and strengthening public health services in Australia and overseas.

Pro­fes­sor William (Bill) Rawl­in­son AM has been appoint­ed a Com­pan­ion of the Order of Aus­tralia (AC), the nation’s high­est civil­ian hon­our, for his emi­nent ser­vice to the med­ical sci­ences as a virol­o­gist, and to clin­i­cal research, edu­ca­tion and pub­lic health.

As Direc­tor of Serol­o­gy and Virol­o­gy at NSW Health Pathology’s Rand­wick Lab­o­ra­to­ry, Pro­fes­sor Rawl­in­son has played a cru­cial role in shap­ing our response to the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic and guid­ing nation­al and inter­na­tion­al pub­lic health strategy.

For all his pro­fes­sion­al achieve­ments, he is quick to empha­sise the col­lec­tive effort behind the recognition.

“I think it is an acknowl­edge­ment of all of our work and the award is a shared one,” he insists.

“Recog­ni­tion of the impact of sci­ence, ratio­nal­ism and com­pas­sion­ate care on improv­ing people’s lives needs to be recog­nised every day.

“We saw that dur­ing the pan­dem­ic, but there are dai­ly strug­gles in people’s lives from sick­ness, and we need to remem­ber that, and acknowl­edge it is impor­tant work we all do to relieve this suffering.”

“Lucky to be allowed to do what I like best”

Pro­fes­sor Rawlinson’s career spans decades of con­tri­bu­tion across clin­i­cal ser­vice, lab­o­ra­to­ry sci­ence and research, includ­ing lead­er­ship roles dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic and ongo­ing work with the World Health Organization.

With more than 650 pub­li­ca­tions and tens of thou­sands of cita­tions, his influ­ence on virol­o­gy is sig­nif­i­cant and far-reaching.

“I real­ly don’t see my life as a career,” he said.

“I have been lucky to be allowed to do what I like best, which is to put my efforts into the most impor­tant work I see in the world; that is med­i­cine, research and reduc­ing the impact of ill­ness on people.”

He says cen­tral to all his work is a com­mit­ment to integri­ty and learn­ing, some­thing he sees reflect­ed in the peo­ple he works along­side each day.

“The lab­o­ra­to­ry sci­en­tists, researchers and clin­i­cians I am so proud to work with step up when need­ed. They put in effort all the time, and, like me, occa­sion­al­ly make mis­takes, but always step up to fix the prob­lems when they arise.

“My favourite philoso­pher is Karl Pop­per, who when he was over 90 years of age wrote to a col­league, ‘But I would be hap­py if I could see where I am in error’. He con­sis­tent­ly wrote of the val­ue of con­struc­tive, hon­est debate in achiev­ing the best truth we can.

“There is noth­ing more impor­tant than integri­ty, learn­ing from what we do, and mov­ing towards the best out­comes in our work, and in our lives.”

An enduring commitment to patient care

Also recog­nised in the King’s Birth­day Hon­ours, is NSW Health Pathol­o­gy immu­nol­o­gist, Pro­fes­sor Suran Fer­nan­do, who has been award­ed a Medal of the Order of Aus­tralia (OAM) for his ser­vice to med­i­cine in the field of immunology.

As the inau­gur­al Head of Clin­i­cal Immunol­o­gy and Aller­gy at Roy­al North Shore Hos­pi­tal, Pro­fes­sor Fer­nan­do has helped build and shape ser­vices that direct­ly improve patient care for peo­ple liv­ing with com­plex immune con­di­tions includ­ing autoim­mune dis­eases, immun­od­e­fi­cien­cies, and drug allergies.

Reflect­ing on the hon­our, he admits he feels uncom­fort­able being sin­gled out for recog­ni­tion giv­en the peo­ple and expe­ri­ences that have defined his career.

“I don’t feel deserv­ing of this hon­our, hav­ing worked along­side so many tal­ent­ed and ded­i­cat­ed peo­ple through­out my career and sim­ply doing my best to care for patients and improve the health ser­vices avail­able to them,” Pro­fes­sor Fer­nan­do said.

Among his achieve­ments is estab­lish­ing the Depart­ment of Clin­i­cal Immunol­o­gy and Aller­gy at Roy­al North Shore Hos­pi­tal, expand­ing access to spe­cialised care and improv­ing out­comes for patients with com­plex aller­gic and immuno­log­i­cal conditions.

He has also con­tributed to ground­break­ing research in the field of drug aller­gy that has trans­lat­ed into stan­dard of care in clin­i­cal prac­tice with improved out­comes at the patient and health ser­vice levels.

His ded­i­ca­tion to ser­vice has also extend­ed beyond Aus­tralia. After the 2004 Box­ing Day tsuna­mi, he trav­elled to his birth­place, Sri Lan­ka, where he con­tributed to rebuild­ing med­ical and health­care infra­struc­ture dur­ing a time of immense disruption.

He has pro­vid­ed care to peo­ple liv­ing with HIV in the West­ern and South­ern High­lands of Papua New Guinea and has con­tributed to HIV men­tor­ing pro­grams in the region. He has also helped intro­duce cost-effec­tive mol­e­c­u­lar tests to pre­vent the devel­op­ment of life-threat­en­ing drug reac­tions in Vietnam.

Pro­fes­sor Fer­nan­do says his focus remains firm­ly on the impact of his work on patients and communities.

“Help­ing patients and ensur­ing peo­ple get the best pos­si­ble care will always be fore­most in my mind. But I am extreme­ly hum­bled by this recognition.”

Togeth­er, Pro­fes­sors Rawl­in­son and Fer­nan­do exem­pli­fy the very best of NSW Health Pathol­o­gy, com­bin­ing sci­en­tif­ic excel­lence with com­pas­sion and a shared com­mit­ment to improv­ing lives.

Their recog­ni­tion in the King’s Birth­day Hon­ours not only cel­e­brates indi­vid­ual achieve­ment, but also high­lights the essen­tial role pathol­o­gy and pub­lic health play in pro­tect­ing the health and well­be­ing of all Aus­tralians. Con­grat­u­la­tions to you both!

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