Dr Murray Johns receives the Distinguished Achievement Award

10 September 2020

ASA members gathered online on Friday 4 September to honour sleep pioneer Dr Murray Johns as this year's recipient of the association's Distinguished Achievement Award.

Hosted by ASA President, Alan Young, the ceremony was marked by warmth, celebration and gratitude to Dr Johns for all he has contributed to sleep health and sleep medicine in the course of his illustrious and remarkable career. 

A team of six ASA members joined forces to nominate Dr Johns for the award, and they each were able to read part of the citation. Andrew Tucker finished the citation with a concise summary of Dr Johns' achievements across his career.

"In summary, Dr John’s exemplary professional career in sleep medicine as a clinician researcher has made a tremendous impact on the field through three main areas: development of sleep diagnostic system, development of the Epworth Sleepiness Scale, and development of Optalert. Accordingly, he will be remembered as one of Australia’s early pioneers in the sleep field, whose contributions will be recognised and appreciated by generations of researchers and clinicians."

You can view the recording of the presentation ceremony below.