Alan Bensoussan

Professor Bensoussan has had major impact on government policies through his work on numerous Ministerial Committees, including as Chair of the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) Advisory Committee for Complementary Medicines (2011-14), as a member of the Australian National Medicines Policy Committee (2008-11) and as a consultant to the World Health Organisation. He has recently served as a Ministerial appointment to the Natural Therapies Review Expert Advisory Panel (2020-2024) examining evidence in support of health insurance rebates. Professor Bensoussan was also commissioned by Government to review the practice of Chinese medicine in Australia leading to the introduction of national regulation of Chinese medicine practitioners in Australia in 2012 – the first western nation to do so.

Professor Bensoussan has published over 220 scientific papers, two books and several book chapters. He has been a lead investigator on numerous high quality clinical trials and reviews of herbal medicine. In 2007 he established Australia’s National Institute of Complementary Medicine (NICM) at Western Sydney University, seed funded with the bilateral support of the Australian Commonwealth and State Governments. NICM Health Research Institute is now one of the world’s most recognised integrative medicine research institutes undertaking preclinical, clinical and translational research activities.

Professor Bensoussan has a strong track record of securing external funding from state, federal, international and private sector sources for health research totalling over $40 million. This includes prestigious funding from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Australian National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the Department of Education, Science and Technology, AusIndustry, Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing, NSW Department of State and Regional Development, NSW Office of Science and Medical Research, NSW, QLD and Victorian Health and domestic and international industry partners and donors. Professor Bensoussan has also served as a program grant reviewer for the US NIH, NHMRC, the Hong Kong Medical Research Council, Cochrane Collaboration and the Norwegian Medical Research Council.

In 2014 Professor Bensoussan was awarded the Lady Cilento Award by the peak Australian industry association recognising an individual’s lifetime achievements and contributions to the community. In 2013 Professor Bensoussan received the prestigious International Award for Contribution to Chinese Medicine by the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology awarded to outstanding international researchers in Chinese Medicine. In 2019 Professor Bensoussan, together with key colleagues from the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, received the Achievement Award in Medical Science by the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology. In 2019 Professor Bensoussan was also awarded the International Qi Huang Award for his research in Chinese medicine by the Chinese Association of Chinese Medicine. In 2024 Professor Bensoussan was included in the Stanford University top 2% of world scientists with the greatest impact in their field. Professor Bensoussan was appointed Emeritus Professor in recognition of his service to the community and University.

Professor Bensoussan provides a broad range of consultancy support to industry on new product development and research study design.

Publications

For a full listing of publications please see:

• WESTERN SYDNEY UNIVERSITY (opens in a new window)
• ORCID (opens in a new window)
• GOOGLE SCHOLAR (opens in a new window)
• THE CONVERSATION (opens in a new window)