Barry Marshall

He tied the nuptial knot with Adrienne in 1972. Together, the couple has been blessed with four children: Luke, Bronwyn, Caroline and Jessica.

Barry Marshall was born on September 30, 1951 in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. At the time of his birth, his father was in his final year of apprenticeship as a fitter and turner, while his mother left her nursing occupation. He was the eldest of the four siblings.

In his early years, young Marshall was constantly under move, first travelling to Carnarvon where his father worked as a tradesman. After about five to six years, the family shifted to Perth.

At Perth, he was enrolled at a prominent school. He was a very good student and both his parents encouraged his inquisitive nature and curious mindset.

Completing his preliminary education, he gained admission at the Newman College and later at the University of Western Australia, from where he earned his M.B.B.S. degree in 1974.

In 1975, he interned at the Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre. Interestingly unlike other students who displayed an interest in medical career, he was more interested in taking the academic route concerning research.

In 1978, he began his training as a specialist physician. Following year, he moved to Royal Perth Hospital with a dream to gain more experience in cardiology and open heart surgery. Therein he worked as a physician-in-training.

In 1981, it was due to the routine practice of rotation that he moved to the gastroenterology department where he had a chance meeting with Dr. Robin Warren, a pathologist interested in gastritis.

Interested to work in a gastroenterology project, he was asked by Dr Tom Waters to assist Robin Warren, who had conducted research on the stomach biopsies on a list of patients who had the presence of curved bacteria and wanted someone to follow it up for him.

He took up the research along with Warren and together the two studied intently the presence of spiral bacteria in association with gastritis. He soon got more and more involved and interested in the same.

For his work on the theory of the bacterial cause of peptic ulcer, he was showered with numerous awards by the international scientific community. He won the highly-esteemed Warren Alpert Prize in 1994.

Following year, together with his colleague Dr Warren, he received the prestigious Australian Medical Association Award and the Albert Lasker Clinical Medical Research Award, which is the most coveted honor in American medicine

Other highly esteemed and prominent awards won by him include Canada’s Gairdner International Award, Germany’s Paul Ehrlich Prize, the Netherlands’ Heineken Prize, Australia’s Florey Medal and Centenary Medal, the Buchanan Medal of Britain’s Royal Society, the Benjamin Franklin Medal for Life Sciences and Japan’s Keio Medical Science Prize.

In 2005, he finally received the coveted and highly-anticipated Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, after a decade long contention over being top contenders. He shared the prize with Dr Warren.

In 2007, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2007. Two years later, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree by the University of Oxford.