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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this website contains images of deceased persons.

The Gallery’s Acknowledgement of Country, and information on culturally sensitive and restricted content and the use of historic language in the collection can be found here.

Elizabeth Blackburn

2011
Hugh Hamilton

inkjet print on paper (sheet: 40.5 cm x 30.3 cm, image: 37.6 cm x 28.3 cm)

Elizabeth Blackburn AC (b. 1948) became the first Australian-born female Nobel laureate when she was jointly awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Born in Hobart, she completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Melbourne, undertook her PhD at Cambridge and commenced postdoctoral research at Yale in 1975. She joined the Department of Molecular Biology at the University of California, Berkeley in 1978; in 1984, she and Carol Greider, who'd been her doctoral student, confirmed the existence of an enzyme, telomerase, which replenishes the telomere – a protective 'cap' at the end of the chromosome – offering hope for cancer treatment and clues to the mystery of ageing. Blackburn moved to the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at UC San Francisco in 1990. In 2001 she was appointed to the President's Council on Bioethics, but was dropped from the council after criticising the Bush administration's negative stance on embryonic stem cell science. President-elect of the American Association for Cancer Research, her many awards include the Heineken Prize, the Lasker Award and the L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science.

Australian-born, Los Angeles-based photographer Hugh Hamilton captured this portrait of Blackburn in a boardroom at Microsoft’s Mountain View campus in California. Eager to get back to her research, Blackburn granted Hamilton five minutes to take the photograph.

Purchased with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2011
© Hugh Hamilton/Copyright Agency, 2024

The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. Works of art from the collection are reproduced as per the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The use of images of works from the collection may be restricted under the Act. Requests for a reproduction of a work of art can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.

Artist and subject

Hugh Hamilton (age 54 in 2011)

Elizabeth Blackburn AC (age 63 in 2011)

Supported by

Marilyn Darling AC (32 portraits supported)

© National Portrait Gallery 2024
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Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196

The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

This website comprises and contains copyrighted materials and works. Copyright in all materials and/or works comprising or contained within this website remains with the National Portrait Gallery and other copyright owners as specified.

The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. The use of images of works of art reproduced on this website and all other content may be restricted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Requests for a reproduction of a work of art or other content can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.

The National Portrait Gallery is an Australian Government Agency