John Foxton Ross Kerr 1934–2024

John Kerr (1934–2024) was internationally renowned for the discovery of apoptosis, the process of cell death to which he gave that name in 1972. 

He studied Medicine at the University of Queensland, completed a PhD at the University College Hospital, London, and qualified as an anatomical pathologist and a physician in both Australia and England. Most of his working life was spent at the University of Queensland, where he was Professor of Pathology for 20 years and also at the Royal Brisbane Hospital. 

As well as being a gifted and meticulous researcher, he was an inspirational lecturer. His lifelong hobby was as a lepidopterist, and his impressive collection of butterflies and moths, one of the best in the country, was donated to the Australian National Insect Collection (ANIC), a major scientific resource managed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). 

He received numerous highly competitive awards for his groundbreaking research, including Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia; the Fred W. Stewart Award, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre; the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize; and the International Charles IV Prize, Charles University and the City of Prague. 

Kerr’s early work on apoptosis fostered innumerable studies about the mechanisms of cell death in both normal physiological processes and in a wide variety of disease states, particularly degenerative diseases and carcinoma.

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About this memoir

This memoir was originally published in Historical Records of Australian Science, vol. 37(1), 2026. It was written by Margaret C. Cummings.