Henry Burger (1933 – 2024)
Professor Henry Burger was born in Vienna, Austria. He was sent to boarding school in England as a young child in 1939. In 1940 he and his mother sailed to Australia to join his research scientist father, who had left Europe several months earlier.
The family lived first in Adelaide, then moved to Melbourne. He studied medicine at the University of Melbourne then worked as a doctor at St Vincent’s Hospital. He then decided to specialise in endocrinology which took him to the Alfred Hospital. From here he left for England in 1961 with a Nuffield Foundation Dominion Travelling Fellowship.
Another fellowship took him to the National Institutes of Health in the United States in 1962. In 1965, he returned to Australia to take up a position as Associate Director of Prince Henry’s Hospital Medical Research Centre in Melbourne. He was appointed Executive Director in 1969 and Director in 1972.
Professor Burger remained as Director when the facility became an institute in 1990, retiring from the position in 1998. He continued his research in the areas of endocrinology and menopause, and to see patients for many years after his retirement as Director.
He was elected a Fellow in 1994 for his work in medical practice and medical research, in the area of reproductive endocrinology, especially his work with the hormone inhibin.
Professor Burger was awarded: the Royal Australasian College of Physicians’ Eric Susman Prize (1975); the Endocrine Society of Australia and the New Zealand Society of Endocrinology’s Annual Prize for Endocrine Research (1978); the Dale Medal of the British Endocrine Society (1997); Royal Society of Victoria Research Medal (1997); and the NAMS/Procter and Gamble Pharmaceuticals Morrie M Gelfand Leadership Award in Androgen Research (2006).
In 1993 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia.
