Professor Rick Speare has undergraduate qualifications in medicine and veterinary science with a PhD in parasitology on the taxonomy of Strongyloides. Rick has now been doing research at JCU for 30 years on infectious diseases and their control in both human and animal populations in the tropics. Rick coordinates and teaches postgraduate subjects on communicable disease control, infectious diseases and human parasitology. Parasitological research interests have included parasites of Australian wildlife and domestic animals, and parasites of humans in Africa, Australia and the Pacific, including those causing malaria, schistosomiasis, filariasis, intestinal nematodes, pediculosis and scabies. Recent experimental work has been on the use of Necator americanus as a therapy for allergic and autoimmune diseases.