Professor Michael Hobbs was born in Perth and studied medicine in Adelaide before returning to work at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital.

In 1964 he went to Oxford University where he completed a PhD in perinatal mortality and gained experience in record linkage.

He was the inaugural head of the University of Western Australia’s Department of Public Health (now the School of Population Health) and pioneered the development of medical record linkage in WA.

He led the first Wittenoom cohort study into asbestos-related disease. More recently, his research focus has been on coronary heart disease.