Jonathan Carapetis is the global leader in rheumatic heart disease and Group A Streptococcal disease. He was the first to quantify the disease burden in Australia and globally, prove skin infection is key in pathogenesis and demonstrate that environmental rather than genetic or organism factors drive disease burden. His work led to a WHO Global Resolution on Rheumatic Fever and Rheumatic Heart Disease. Carapetis has reshaped the control of Rheumatic Heart Disease globally, particularly among Australia’s Indigenous people. His leadership of two Institutes and as President of the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes has changed the way medical research is done.