Tilman Ruff

He has been active in the Medical Association for Prevention of War (Australia) since 1982 and a past national President.

He was a co-founder and founding chair of the governing bodies of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) in Australia and internationally. 

In 2017, ICAN became the first Australian-born Nobel Peace Laureate "for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons". The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons negotiated at the UN that year entered into legal force in Jan 2021.

Dr Ruff is Honorary Principal Fellow in the School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne. He was director of travel medicine at Royal Melbourne Hospital, worked on hepatitis B control, immunisation and maternal and child health in Indonesia and Pacific island countries; and documented the link between nuclear testing and outbreaks of ciguatera fish poisoning in the Pacific.

He was Australian Red Cross international medical advisor 1996-2019 and founding member of the WHO Western Pacific Expert Resource Panel on Hepatitis B Control.

In 2012, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia “for service to the promotion of peace as an advocate for the abolition of nuclear weapons, and to public health through the promotion of immunisation programs in the South-East Asia – Pacific region” This national honour was upgraded in 2019.