Associate Professor Dave Hawkes is a clinical scientist who completed a PhD in molecular virology at the Burnet Institute specializing in HIV. He has undertaken postdoctoral work at the University of Melbourne, the University of Bristol in the UK, and at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health. He is the Director of Molecular Microbiology at the Australian Centre for the Prevention of Cervical Cancer (ACPCC) which includes the Australian HPV Reference Laboratory. His work focuses on the pragmatic application of research and commercial technologies to facilitate the WHO Strategy for the Elimination of cervical cancer as a public health issue both within Australia and in the wider Asia-Pacific region. Since the introduction of HPV-based screening in December 2017 ACPCC has reported over one million HPV testing in the National Cervical Screening Program, including over 100,000 self-collected samples. He has published over 50 papers in scientific journals and holds honorary positions at both the University of Melbourne in Australia, and the University of Malaya in Malaysia.