For many who join the prestigious rank of Member of the Order of Australia, most of their work can be seen by the naked eye.
For Distinguished Professor Vasso Apostolopoulos, that is not necessarily the case.
The Point Cook local was inducted into the fold for her significant service to medical research, particularly immunology.
Currently a top research director at RMIT, Dr Apostolopoulos has produced a large body of internationally distributed work dealing with the treatment of disease.
When she was studying at the University of Melbourne more than 30 years ago, the word ‘immunology’ didn’t necessarily leave an impression on other students.
“I remember a lot of the other students would get together and would ask what were you studying,” she said.
”A couple of weeks later they would come up and ask what you were studying again.
“Then a couple of months later they asked about emus.”
With a host of awards coming from her research, Dr Apostolopoulos has proven that the field is more than relevant in our lives – but indispensable to life itself.
Among these honours was the Premier’s Award for Medical Research in 1996, Victorian Young Australian of the Year in 1997 and being named Greek Australian of the Year in 2010.
Still, this latest honour was not one she expected.
“Well, I was very surprised. You always hear about it every year people getting all these awards but I was always like, wow, these are like important people but now I have one.
“In my field of work we usually don’t get awards and medals, it’s not a common thing for a medical researcher to get them, so that’s an added bonus.”
What drew her to the field all those years ago – and keeps her so enthused – is the ability to understand the very mechanisms of human disease.
“It’s exciting because you are in this little world and you just get so immersed in it,” she said.
“If you can understand why a disease occurs then you can apply the correct treatments.
“When you see the humans are responding and getting better, then you see all these efforts have resulted in something.”
There is something special about leaving a legacy in a microscopic world with major implications on every aspect of life.
“You are adding your little piece to the puzzle and it’s a big puzzle and then you are like ’wow, we’ve figured out what’s happened here’,” Dr Apostolopoulos said.
“And adding your little piece to the puzzle is important.”
The bulk of her research has been related to cancer, but she is constantly evolving and has begun to tackle diseases such as multiple sclerosis, diabetes and substance addiction.
However intimidating it can be to study STEM subjects at school or university, Dr Apostolopoulos has a message for young people.
“A lot of young people think it’s hard to study to study STEM, but if you put your mind to it you can achieve whatever you want.
“Just keep going and you’ll get there, everything is achievable.”
