Professor Andrew Spencer is this year's recipient of the Robert Pitney Travelling Fellowship.

Prof Spencer is Head of the Malignant Haematology and Stem Cell Transplantation Service at The Alfred Hospital, Professor of Haematology at Monash University, Head of the Myeloma Research Group and Co-Director of the ACRF Blood Cancer Therapeutics Centre at the Australian Centre for Blood Diseases. He serves on the scientific advisory boards of the International Myeloma Foundation (IMF), International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG) and the European Myeloma Network (EMN). 

Prof Spencer completed his medical training in clinical and laboratory haematology in 1992. He was awarded a LRF (UK) Fellowship and spent 3 years at The Royal Postgraduate Medical School, London, where he undertook research into Bcell clonality in chronic myeloid Leukaemia under the supervision of Professors John Goldman and Junia Melo and was awarded a Doctorate of Medicine from the University of London. Andrew moved to The Alfred Hospital in 1999 where he established an independent translational research program. 

He established a first-in-human and early phase haematology clinical research unit at The Alfred and was appointed Head of the Malignant Haematology & Stem Cell Transplantation Services in 2007. 

Prof Spencer has secured research funding of more than 12 million via funding bodies, industry collaborations and philanthropy. He has >100 peer reviewed publications with citations in excess of 3500. He serves on the scientific advisory boards of the International Myeloma Foundation, International Myeloma Working Group and the European Myeloma Network. 

Prof Spencer is a Director of the Australasian Leukaemia & Lymphoma Group, and the International Myeloma Society. He is a past President of the Haematology Society of Australia & New Zealand.

TheW. R. Bob Pitney Travelling Fellowship isawarded to a distinguished Australian or New Zealand Haematologist to lecture around Australia and New Zealand for a maximum of two years. It provides an opportunity to educate haematologists and trainees in a specific area of expertise, in addition to establishing a collegial relationship with advanced trainees in the discipline.  

Congratulations to Prof Spencer on receiving this travelling fellowship.