All speakers are listed in alphabetical order.
ASRH Keynote | The Kirby Institute
Lessons learnt from the GoGoVax trial - why clinical trials matter
Scientia Professor Andrew Grulich is Head of the HIV Epidemiology and Prevention Program at the Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales. He has worked in HIV/STI prevention in gay and bisexual men for more than 3 decades and sits on the Governing Council of the International AIDS Society
HIV&AIDS Keynote | Ragon Institute of MGB, MIT and Harvard
The global quest for durable immune control of HIV
Less than 1% of persons living with HIV have the extraordinary ability to control HIV without medications, making them essentially functionally cured. Emerging data support the hypothesis that the immune system may be trained to do this in persons on ART.
Dr. Walker is a physician-scientist, the founding and current Institute Director of the Ragon Institute of Mass General Brigham, MIT and Harvard, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. His laboratory studies T cell immune responses to chronic viral infections, using HIV as a model system.
HIV&AIDS Keynote | Macquarie University
Critical care in the future HIV response: what can we learn from the history of nurses on the frontline of Australia’s AIDS crisis?
The story of how nurses and their unions worked in partnership with the gay community to respond to HIV and AIDS in Australia is an inspiring example of care and solidarity, and can help us think critically about how we respond to HIV today and into the future.
Dr Geraldine Fela is an award-winning historian and Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Humanities at Macquarie University. Her research traverses histories of gender and sexuality, labour, social movements and medicine.
Her first book, Critical Care: Nurses on the frontline of Australia’s AIDS crisis was published by UNSW Press in July 2024. In 2025, Critical Care was awarded the Prime Minister’s Literary Award in the category of Australian history, and was shortlisted in the NSW History Awards.
“The story of how nurses and their unions worked in partnership with the gay community to respond to HIV and AIDS in Australia is an inspiring example of care and solidarity, and can help us think critically about how we respond to HIV today and into the future.”
HIV&AIDS Keynote | Faculty of Medicine, University Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
PrEP implementation in Malaysia: Lessons for the region
Malaysia’s implementation of PrEP offers a distinctive case study in advancing evidence-based HIV prevention into real world practice. This presentation explores how cultural, religious, and health system considerations shape programme design and delivery, highlighting contextually grounded, scalable strategies and transferable lessons for the region.
Dr. Iskandar Azwa is an Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases and the Clinical Lead for the HIV service in the Infectious Diseases Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University Malaya, Kuala Lumpur.
He is also the Director of the Centre of Excellence for Research in Infectious Diseases & AIDS (CERIA), Faculty of Medicine, University Malaya.
His research interests include HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) implementation research, HIV resistance and evaluation of novel HIV treatment strategies in resource-limited settings.
He is the site Principal Investigator (PI) for several international collaborative HIV clinical trials that have shaped HIV guidelines both locally and globally. Much of his recent work has focused on increasing community access to HIV prevention biomedical interventions and implementation differentiated service delivery models of HIV care and prevention, including m-health and pharmacy-led service delivery models. He has been a member of several WHO guidelines development groups on HIV treatment and prevention since 2020.
HIV&AIDS Keynote | Patsin/napwha
Michelle Tobin is an Aboriginal woman of the Yorta Yorta Nation and a descendant of the Stolen Generation. She is a mother to two daughters and 6 grandchildren and lives on the Central Coast NSW with her partner of 20 years. She has lived with HIV for over 36 years, lost her husband to HIV in 1992 and experienced many levels of stigma and discrimination. This drove Michelle to become a passionate, vocal advocate for HIV issues.
Michelle worked with the HIV Speakers Bureau for many years and served on several state-and national-level HIV boards and committees. She sits on the Board of the Anwernekenhe National HIV Alliance. (The ANA) as the representative living with HIV and is a community member and Convener of the Positive Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Network (PATSIN). Michelle is a director on the board of NAPWHA and a member of the National Association of People with HIV Australia’s Femme Fatales network and one of two women across Australia who advocate for Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people living with HIV. She represents the positive voice of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, especially women, on several advisory committees.
Recently completed a Graduate Diploma in Indigenous Health Promotion -Social Emotional Wellbeing at Sydney University and worked with Positive Life NSW in developing The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People Living With or at Risk of HIV Health Co-Designed Project is a needs assessment of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Indigenous) community of NSW, regarding and with consideration to: accessing and engaging with services (including health and social determinants of health-related services); accessing pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and antiretroviral medication (ART); lifestyle choices, including transience; rates of incarceration/custody; and public health orders.
HIV&AIDS Keynote | University of California, San Francisco
Clinical trial data characterising a promising combination immunotherapy strategy for functional HIV Cure
Rachel Rutishauser, MD, PhD is an Infectious Disease physician-scientist and Associate Professor in the Division of Experimental Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. The Rutishauser laboratory studies immunologic mechanisms of HIV control.
More speakers will be announced soon...