Judith Ann Whitworth is an Australian medical researcher in the areas of kidney function and blood pressure. Now an Emeritus Professor, she is the former Director of the John Curtin School of Medical Research and Howard Florey Professor of Medical Research at the Australian National University.
Education
Judith Ann Whitworth was born 1 April 1944. She graduated from the University of Melbourne with a degree in medicine in 1967 then worked first at Royal Melbourne Hospital and then the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Adelaide. She was awarded Doctor of Medicine by the University of Melbourne in 1974. Her 1977 thesis on "Steroids and Hypertension in the Sheep gained her a PhD from the Howard Florey Institute of Experimental Physiology and Medicine and Department of Physiology at the University of Melbourne. In 1992, Whitworth received a DSc from the University of Melbourne for her thesis, "Steroid Hypertension in Man, Rat and Sheep."
Career
Prior to her move to academia, Whitworth worked in hospitals both in Australia and overseas, including as Research Fellow at the Tenon Hospital in Paris, France in 1973-74 and as Visiting Registrar at Guys Hospital, London in 1974-75. She was first physician and later nephrologist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital 1978-1991. From 1994 to 1996 Whitworth was Chair of the Medical Research Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council. In 1997, Whitworth was the first woman to be appointed Chief Medical Officer in the Commonwealth Department of Health and Family Services for a three year term. She then became Director of the John Curtin School of Medical Research from August 1999 to July 2009. Alongside her academic responsibilities she was President of the High Blood Pressure Research Council of Australia from 1999 to 2001 and Chair of the World Health Organisation Global Advisory Committee on Health Research from 2005 to 2011. Whitworth was honoured to present the Paddy Woolcock Lecture at the biennial Woolcock gala held by the Prince Charles Hospital Foundation in 2014. Earlier lectures had been given by Professor Peter Doherty and Professor Fiona Wood. She has been a member of the Council of the Charles Darwin University from its inception in 2003 to date. She is on the Board of Therapeutic Innovation Australia and Chair of its Clinical Trials Infrastructure Committee.
Honorary Life Member of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Nephrology
Legacy
The Judith Whitworth Fellowship for Gender Equity in Science was inaugurated in 2014 in recognition of her work at the Australian National University. It will provide early support for young scientists, particularly women, to take leave to care for their child.
Selected works
Personal life
Whitworth was the second wife of the late Professor John Ludbrook,, a medical researcher and surgeon. They had one daughter.
