ASBMB

The Lemberg Medal

The Lemberg Medal is awarded to a distinguished ASBMB member who will present the Lemberg Lecture at the annual ASBMB conference. The Medal is presented in memory of Emeritus Professor M.R. Lemberg who was the Society’s first President and Honorary Member. The award will be made to an individual who has demonstrated excellence in biochemistry and molecular biology and who has made significant contributions to the scientific community. Nominees must have been members of the Society for at least 5 years before the year in which the Medal nomination is to be considered. An honorarium is provided by ASBMB.

To view a list of previous Lemberg medallists please click here

Nomination Information
- All nominees should have been members of the ASBMB for a minimum of 5 years
- All nominations should include at least 2 proposers who should have been members of the ASBMB for a minimum of 2 years
- Proposers should prepare a nomination document to include all information detailed on the Lemberg Medal Nomination Template. This document should be saved as a single PDF file ready to be uploaded as part of the online nomination form.

When you are ready to begin your nomination, please click the button below.

2025 Award Recipient

Michelle Haber
UNSW Sydney

Michelle Haber is Executive Director of the Children’s Cancer Institute, Co-Head of the Institute’s Experimental Therapeutics and Molecular Oncology Group, and Conjoint Professor at the UNSW Sydney. She is recognised internationally as a leading childhood cancer researcher, who has made pioneering breakthroughs that have greatly advanced our understanding of childhood cancer. Through a career focussed on identifying novel targets and developing therapeutic and diagnostic approaches to improving outcomes of children with aggressive childhood malignancies, Michelle has contributed fundamental advances in knowledge and changed clinical practice, improving survival and quality of life for children with these cancers.

Michelle has pioneered three novel therapeutic approaches for high-risk child cancers (polyamine inhibition, NAMPT inhibition and chromatin modifier therapies), which have since been adopted into five national/international clinical trials. She played a key role in developing PCR-based technology to detect minimal residual disease (MRD) in children with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL), which resulted in doubling of the cure rate for high-risk patients with ALL. This led to MRD testing being made standard of care for patients with ALL, and subsequent government funding to make this test reimbursable through Medicare. Michelle has also changed clinical practice for Australian children with cancer through her establishment and leadership of ZERO, Australia’s first child cancer personalised medicine program, which is enabling every child with cancer to have tailored therapy, targeting the specific genetic and biological characteristics of their individual tumour.

Michelle has received numerous awards (Order of Australia; NSW Scientist of Year; NHMRC Ten of the Best; Premier’s Awards for Excellence in Translational Research, Cancer Researcher of Year) and is a Fellow of both the Australian Academy of Science, and the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Science. She was featured in Cancer Cell as one of ten international child cancer research experts. Most recently, Michelle was awarded the Sidney Sax Medal for outstanding health leadership from the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association, and received Lifetime Achievement Awards from both the Advances in Neuroblastoma Research Association and CEO Magazine. She was also a 2024 finalist for NSW Senior Australian of the Year.

Michelle has served on the Steering Committee of the International Advances in Neuroblastoma Research Association; Director of Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes; board member for Kids Cancer Alliance, Luminesce Alliance and South Australian immunoGENomics Cancer Institute; and is Co-Chair of the ACRF Medical Research Advisory Committee. She has also secured $300 million to build Australia’s first Children’s Comprehensive Cancer Centre to house up to 900 research staff and clinical partners, opening in late-2025.