Austin Milton started his career in a routine immunology laboratory and has extensive experience in immunodiagnostics, including two episodes as NATA assessor of immunodiagnostic laboratories and several years’ experience in a renal immunology team under Prof. Toby Coates. His experience includes PCR assays, electrophoresis techniques, cell cultures, immuno-histochemistry and both light and ultraviolet microscopy. In more recent years, Austin moved into research and has co-authored over 20 papers on stroke or transient ischaemic attack (TIA), and co-authored a chapter on microbiological tests in a medical textbook. He has 50 original peer-reviewed publications recognised by Google Scholar with ~250 citations. In 2011 a grant application to the Rebecca L Cooper Medical Research Foundation for which Austin was principal writer was awarded the prestigious Leo Dintenfass medal for “the most interesting or innovative research grant application of the year”. In 2020, he was honoured to accept an appointment to SAHMRI as a Research Fellow with the Lifelong Health Theme.

Austin has been a member of SAMSA since 1980 and a Committee member since 2005. He believes strongly in the SAMSA’s role as a supporting agency for Medical Scientists and graduate technical officers and also in creating pathways for technical officers with degrees to become medical scientists.