Professor Charles Watson

Professor Charles Watson has been Executive Dean of Health Sciences at Curtin University of Technology in Perth since late1997. His academic qualifications include a medical degree, a research doctorate and a specialist qualification in public health medicine. After a 14 years teaching anatomy at UWA and UNSW, he turned to a career in public health in the Health Department of Western Australia, and he became Chief Health Officer in 1993. For the past ten years he has worked as a dean of health sciences in Wollongong and at Curtin.

He and his colleague, Professor George Paxinos are the authors of "The Rat Brain in Stereotaxic Coordinates". First published in 1982, the atlas is the tenth most cited publication in the world and the most cited Australian scientific work ever.

Charles is currently working on the 6th edition of the rat brain atlas and is looking to complete work on a chicken brain atlas by the end of this year. He is also commencing a study on gene expression in the segmental structures that form the brainstem.