Frank Grützner

Professor Frank Grützner received his PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin in 2001. In the same year he moved to the Australian National University where he led and international team that resolved the longstanding controversy about the complex sex chromosome system in the platypus. In 2005 he moved to the University of Adelaide, where he is associate Head Research and group leader at the School of Biological Sciences. Dr Grutzner has worked in the field of comparative genome biology in many different species and published extensively in leading international journals including Nature, Nature Genetics and Science. For the past 20 years he has been instrumental in establishing monotremes as a key species for research in comparative genomics and mammalian evolution.Dr Grutzner is passionate about engagement with the community and with his group and collaborators he established a award winning community based research project on echidna conservation and research (EchidnaCSI).

He has won several awards for his research including the Eppendorf Medal for the Young Australian Investigator (2005) and the Tall Poppy Science Award (2007/8) and SA Science Excellence awards in Citizen Science (2021). His research has been supported by competitive ARC research fellowships and grants since 2003.