Face to face –
Professor John Mattick
“You started this, you know,” Premier Peter Beattie said to Professor John Mattick last April when the Queensland Government launched its latest Smart Queensland Strategy at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB). Professor Mattick was one of the founding directors and is now the sole director of the IMB. The Premier was referring to Professor Mattick’s long promotion of Queensland’s biotechnology potential – potential which is a centrepiece of the government’s Smart State Strategy.
The origins of the Smart State Strategy date back to November, 1998, when Professor Mattick (pictured) attended the first Queensland State Conference of the Australian Labor Party after the State election in June that year.
Professor Mattick was at the conference as a business observer from the University of Queensland. He told anyone who would listen that Queensland had fabulous opportunities to become a world centre for biotechnology, and he so impressed his listeners that he was invited to address State Cabinet a few weeks later.
“I told Cabinet that what was happening was really simple – scientifically we were beginning to understand the molecular and genetic basis of life and the differences between species and individuals.
“What was important was that whoever used that knowledge effectively would transform science. It would also transform all of the biologically based industries, which are over half of the world’s economy, and create new ones that we never dreamed of, just like IT did.
“This was a revolution in molecular biology, creating enormous opportunities.
“This revolution was in its early stages and for an aspiring regional economy like Queensland’s, with limited resources to invest at the margins, it was very much better to get involved in an emerging technology and major industry sector early in its development cycle, rather than have to invest very much more further down the track just to catch up with the rest of the world.”
Professor Mattick said the Premier’s leadership was a critical factor in Queensland’s emergence as a serious player in biological science and biotechnology.
“Queensland is now viewed as the new California, with a combination of great lifestyle and increasingly high tech industry.”
He described the IMB, with its $35 million a year budget and more than 400 scientists and highly trained staff, as “the iconic representation of that Queensland Government commitment.” Its co-location with CSIRO in the Queensland Bioscience Precinct (QBP) makes it even stronger. The IMB is considered one of the jewels in the crown of the state government’s Smart State Strategy.
“We’re projecting a strong image to the world through the IMB and the QBP – for instance, if we hadn’t been here, I doubt Queensland would have hosted a whole series of conferences and scientific gatherings in recent times.”
There’s also been a brain gain to Queensland. “Many people here have come from overseas, particularly at the higher levels, and we’ve attracted post doctoral fellows and PhD students from all over the world to study here.”
Professor Mattick considers his main task now is to secure the IMB’s
future. “I’d like us to have an international reputation for great
research and as a powerhouse of biotechnology and innovation.
“If one of our people won a Nobel Prize and if we also created a blockbuster
drug that earned about $2 billion a year, we’d have well and truly achieved
that.”
