The Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine turns 100: celebrating the centenary of tropical medicine

In 2010, there will be a year of celebrations marking the centenary of tropical medicine in Townsville. One hundred years ago, on January 1st 1910, Dr Anton Breinl arrived in Townsville to take up his post as the Inaugural Director of the Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine (refer to Figure 1), which was at that time Australia’s first medical research institute. There have been many milestones in tropical medicine during the past 100 years, some of which are recorded in Table 1. Not least among these was establishment of The Australasian College of Tropical Medicine (ACTM) on May 29th 1991 at a meeting of 10 people held at the Anton Breinl Centre in the library of what was then the AITM. These 10 people became the foundation Executive and Council of the fledgling College, and who are now commemorated on a plaque maintained by the Anton Breinl Centre