Alan Trounson, appointed president and CEO of CIRM in 2007, left in June 2014 to work for StemCells, Inc., a previous recipient of $20 million in grant money from the program. His departure intensified criticism of CIRM for its perceived cronyism and conflicts of interest concerning the recipients of the program’s largesse.
Trounson earned a master’s of science degree in wool and pastoral sciences from the University of New South Wales in 1971, and a Ph.D. in animal embryology from Sydney University in 1974. Cambridge University’s ARC Institute of Animal Physiology and Biochemistry awarded Trounson the Dalgety Research Fellowship. He joined Monash University of Australia in 1977 as a Senior Research Fellow. The school appointed him director of the Centre for Early Human Development in 1985, awarded him a personal chair in Obstetrics and Gynaecology/Pediatrics in 1991 and a second personal chair as Professor of Stem Cell Sciences in 2003. He is still emeritus professor at Monash.
A pioneer in the area of human in vitro fertilization (IVF) and associated reproductive technologies, Trounson gained fame by facilitating Australia’s first IVF birth. He later founded several biotech companies in Australia and co-founded ES Cell International in Singapore. Trounson’s fame spread world wide in 1998 when Trounson’s team became one of two racing to be the first to cultivate embryonic stem cell lines (a team from the University of Wisconsin won, narrowly).
He also serves on the Science Advisory Board of the Genetics Policy Institute.
CIRM Leadership (CIRM website)
Profile of Alan Trounson (Bloomberg Business Week)
CIRM Leadership (CIRM website)
Profile of Alan Trounson (Bloomberg Business Week)
