Jonathan R. Stretch

Jonathan Stretch is the Deputy Director of Melanoma Institute Australia, the largest melanoma treatment centre in the world. His undergraduate training was completed at the University of New South Wales, and his surgical training was undertaken at the Prince of Wales/Prince Henry group of Hospitals, Westmead Hospital, and Royal North Shore Hospital in New South Wales, Australia. In 1988 he completed a term as an Overseas Fellow in Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery at Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, United Kingdom. From 1989 to 1991, he was a Research Fellow in the Nuffield Department of Surgery of the University of Oxford, and a Clinical Assistant in the Department of Plastic Surgery at Radcliffe Infirmary. During this time he was appointed to the position of Clinical Lecturer by the University of Oxford, and was the recipient of the University’s Overseas Research Student Award. The Faculty of Medicine of the University of Oxford awarded him a Doctorate (by Research) in 1991. Associate Professor Stretch had an active clinical practice as a Plastic Surgeon before returning to academic practice. In March 2002, he was appointed as a Senior Lecturer to the Sydney Melanoma Unit (now Melanoma Institute Australia) by the University of Sydney, concurrent with an appointment as a Clinical Academic by Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. In June of the same year he was appointed as Deputy Director of Melanoma Institute Australia. He retains an appointment as a Visiting Medical Officer, Royal North Shore Hospital and has continued with responsibilities for the development of melanoma services in the Northern Health Area as part of the Cancer Services enhancement program lead by Professor B. Barraclough. In 2009 he was promoted by the University of Sydney to Associate Professor of Surgery (Melanoma and Skin Oncology). Following his appointment to Melanoma Institute Australia (MIA) in 2002, Associate Professor Stretch Stretch explored a range of potential options to support the activities of MIA. In 2004, this resulted in an opportunity to discuss the development of MIA with Mr Greg Poche and personally evolve with him a commitment of $40 million to build a new purpose-designed building and provide associated infrastructure for the Unit. This benefaction represented the largest ever contribution by an individual to a single cause in Australia at that time. He subsequently organized direct meetings with the Federal Minster for Health and secured a further $6.6 million contribution to the project, announced in the 2006 Federal Budget. In addition to conventional teaching roles within the Faculty of Medicine, Associate Professor Stretch has sought to ensure that MIA develops as a strongly integrated clinical and research unit of the University of Sydney. In 2012, he was made a member of the Order of Australia (AM) for service to medicine and to the community as a plastic surgeon and oncologist and through Melanoma Institute Australia. He is the author of numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals. He is a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (Plastic Surgery). His primary current research interests are in the fields of lymphatic mapping and sentinel lymph node biopsy for melanoma, and the use of magnetic resonance spectroscopy in the diagnosis of melanoma.