Emeritus Professor Mark Liveris OBE

Distinguished health sciences scholar and leader Mark Liveris was instrumental in WAIT receiving the biggest grant ever given by the USA’s Kellogg Foundation to an Australian university. The 1980 grant of $837,000 was used to establish a major health research centre and build WAIT’s postgraduate health programs.

Born in 1931, Mark Liveris was educated at Perth Modern School and The University of Western Australia.  He joined Perth Technical College in 1957 and then headed the Department of Chemistry at WAIT after undertaking a post-doctoral fellowship in Canada. Liveris was Assistant Director at WAIT and then Dean and Chairman of the Division of Health Sciences. From 1973 to 1986 he oversaw the development of the Division to make it one of the biggest schools in public and allied health in Australia.

With the transition of WAIT to Curtin University of Technology, Liveris became Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Health Sciences. He held a number of international appointments over the years, from Visiting Scholar at Harvard School of Public Health, to Fellow of the World Health Organisation and Honorary Professor of Beijing Medical University.

Liveris contributed to Curtin becoming the first institute nationwide to offer nursing as both a degree and PhD program.