Georgina Long

Georgina Venetia Long is an Australian medical oncologist, clinical trialist and translational researcher, and works in drug therapy development. She was the joint recipient of the National Australia Day Council's 2024 Australian of the Year Award.^[1]

Long was the first woman and first Australian to be named president of the US-based Society for Melanoma Research.^[2]

Long had five siblings and grew up in Sydney's Inner West in the state of New South Wales, Australia. She also lived in Europe and America as a child.^[3] She completed high school at Santa Sabina College in 1988.^[4]

Long began studying a combined degree of science and law at the University of Sydney, but gave up law and graduated with a double major in pure maths and chemistry in 1993, before completing a PhD in organic chemistry, also at Sydney University, in 1996.^[5][6] She was a postdoctoral researcher at the Scripps Research Institute in California as a Fulbright Fellow, before returning to Australia to undertake her medical degree, graduating with an MBBS in 2001.^[5][6]

Long is a medical oncologist specialising in melanoma. She has led numerous clinical trials,^[7] focusing on targeted therapies and immuno-oncology in melanoma. She is the chief investigator on research into the molecular biology of melanoma.^[8]

Long is co-director of the Melanoma Institute Australia with pathologist Richard Scolyer. Together they have been part of a team pioneering the use of immunotherapy treatment for melanoma, which Long then adapted for brain cancer when Scolyer was diagnosed with it in June 2023.^[9][10] He was the first brain cancer patient in the world to have pre-surgery combination immunotherapy.^[11]

In June 2024, Long was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.^[12]

• University Medal in Organic Chemistry, University of Sydney, 1993^[13]
• New South Wales Cancer Institute Awards Outstanding Cancer Research Fellow of the Year, 2013^[14]
• New South Wales Cancer Institute Awards The Wildfire Highly Cited Publication Award, 2014^[14]
• New South Wales Cancer Institute Awards Excellence in Translational Cancer Research Award, 2017^[15]
• New South Wales Cancer Institute Awards Outstanding Cancer Researcher of the Year, 2018^[16]
• Officer of the Order of Australia, 2020^[17]
• Ramaciotti Medal for Biomedical Research, 2021^[18]
• Medal for Outstanding Female Researcher, Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, 2021^[19][20]
• New South Wales Cancer Institute Awards The Wildfire Highly Cited Publication Award, 2021^[21]
• Novartis Oncology Cancer Achievement Award, Medical Oncology Group of Australia, 2023^[22]
• Australian of the Year, 2024^[23]

• Long, Georgina V; Menzies, Alexander M; Nagrial, Adnan M; et al. (2011). "Prognostic and Clinicopathologic Associations of Oncogenic BRAF in Metastatic Melanoma". Journal of Clinical Oncology. 29 (10): 1239–1246.
• Robert, Caroline; Long, Georgina V; Brady, Benjamin; Dutriaux, Caroline; et al. (2015). "Nivolumab in previously untreated melanoma without BRAF mutation". New England Journal of Medicine. 372 (4): 320–330.
• Robert, Caroline; Schachter, Jacob; Long, Georgina V; et al. (2015). "Pembrolizumab versus Ipilimumab in Advanced Melanoma". The New England Journal of Medicine. 372 (26): 2521–2532.
• Gershenwald, Jeffrey E; Scolyer, Richard A; Hess, Kenneth R; Sondak, Vernon K; Long, Georgina V; et al. (2017). "Melanoma staging: evidence‐based changes in the American Joint Committee on Cancer eighth edition cancer staging manual". CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. 67 (6): 472–492.
• Long, Georgina V; Atkinson, Victoria; Lo, Serigne; et al. (2018). "Combination nivolumab and ipilimumab or nivolumab alone in melanoma brain metastases: a multicentre randomised phase 2 study". The Lancet. 19 (5): 672–681.
• Long, Georgina V (2020). "Pan-cancer analysis of whole genomes". Nature. 578 (7793): 82–93.
• Carlino, Matteo S; Larkin, James; Long, Georgina V (2021). "Immune checkpoint inhibitors in melanoma". The Lancet. 398 (10304): 1002–1014.