Marilyn Anderson

Marilyn Anderson is an Australian scientist and entrepreneur in the area of biochemistry and plant molecular biology. She is a professor at La Trobe University and co-founded Hexima, an agribiotechnology company, in 1998. Biography Anderson studied biochemistry at the University of Melbourne, followed by La Trobe University for her doctoral studies, which she completed in 1976. Her area of focus was polysaccharide hydrolases and carbohydrate chemistry, an area she continued working on during her first research position, at the University of Miami. She later worked on the SV40 virus and oncogenes, and then moved to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where she worked on the oncogenes from adenovirus. In 1982, Anderson returned to Australia and worked with Adrienne Clarke to establish molecular biology at the new Plant Cell Biology Research Centre at the University of Melbourne, In 1995, Anderson moved back to La Trobe University, where she researches defence molecules produced by plants to protect themselves against pests. In 1998, Anderson and Clarke co-founded a business, Hexima, to develop practical applications of this research. Awards and recognition Anderson is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (elected 2010), a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (elected 2011) and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.