Professor Richard Scolyer, an acclaimed pathologist and melanoma researcher who was joint Australian of the Year for 2024, has died at age 59. Multiple Australian outlets report that Scolyer became widely known nationally after being diagnosed in 2023 with an aggressive, inoperable and incurable brain cancer. The Guardian reports the cancer was a grade-four IDH-wildtype glioblastoma, diagnosed in May 2023, and describes it as inoperable.
Several sources also note that Scolyer had a long career of pioneering work in cancer research and treatment, including contributions to immunotherapy, particularly in melanoma. The Guardian adds that, after his diagnosis, Scolyer participated in a novel experimental treatment on himself, positioning it as an effort to advance medicine.
Across the articles, his death is framed as the end of an illness he faced after a late-career diagnosis, with family sharing an account connected to his final stages. Details of the specific treatment outcome are not consistent across reports, but the sources agree on the core facts: his prominence in cancer research, his 2023 brain cancer diagnosis, and his death at 59.
