Mentor and Me: Nigel Maher and Richard Scolyer

Dr Nigel Maher (MPhil '17) is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Medicine and Health, the 3 Minute Thesis (3MT) global runner up for 2024 and a 2025 PERIscope Commercialisation Award winner, whose project is sponsored by the Sydney Biomedical Accelerator, a visionary partnership between the University of Sydney, Sydney Local Health District and the NSW Government.

I’m just under two years into my PhD now. My research is developing artificial intelligence-based tools to improve the pathological evaluation of melanomas and moles. This includes both genomic and image analysis tools. After finishing my medical specialty training in anatomical pathology and completing a fellowship in melanoma pathology, I wanted to combine the knowledge I gained during this time with AI models to improve care for patients and assist pathologists and other doctors in their daily work.

Professor Scolyer was my supervisor and mentor when I was undertaking my melanoma pathology fellowship at the Melanoma Institute Australia (MIA) and is globally recognised as being one of the world’s leading melanoma pathologists. He was and still is instrumental in encouraging and supporting me to forge new ground, to take some risks, and advance the field of melanoma research and patient care. So with that very helpful backing, combined with the excellent team at MIA, who are brilliant in a diverse range of fields, it was an easy choice to study at the University of Sydney (which is affiliated with MIA).

I’ve felt very supported studying a PhD at the University of Sydney. The facilities at Charles Perkins Centre, where I am based, are superb, and the MIA melanoma translational research team at the University is so collaborative and very experienced. The team have been very proactive in assisting with equipment and supportive with personnel and expertise for completing my research. It’s critical to have a multidisciplinary team when developing healthcare AI tools, and that’s what the University and MIA have afforded me. In addition to Professor Scolyer, I’d like to acknowledge the generous mentoring and support of Dr Ismael Vergara, a computational biologist, who is my PhD co-supervisor.

I thoroughly enjoyed the 3MT process of developing a presentation pitch and slide. It made me think creatively with a judicious use of words. It was lovely to express myself outside of the normal scientific language and format of journals. Carefully watching other presenters (how they crafted a story, the impact of their slide, their verbal and non-verbal cues) and practicing in front of others who don’t have your background experience and who aren’t afraid to give feedback are things that helped me refine my presentation. A tip I found helpful was to distil down why does my research matter to the community at large, and to really carry that passion whilst presenting.

It’s been wonderful to start developing international networks with other leading individuals and organisations in the field through my research endeavours. This has and will continue to open doors for impactful research moving forward.

I’m keeping an open mind for what happens next after I complete my PhD. The field of pathology AI (computational pathology) is rapidly growing, which presents a number of different opportunities. I’d love to use to the skills I’ve developed during my PhD applying AI models for pathology, combined with my interest in melanoma pathology and genomics, and translational care.

Professor Richard Scolyer (MD '06) is a Conjoint Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Translational Research Collective and Faculty member of the Melanoma Institute Australia, where he was Co-Medical Director from 2017 to 2025. He was joint 2024 Australian of the Year. He and Nigel are leading a PERIscope research commercialisation project sponsored by the Sydney Biomedical Accelerator.

I have supervised more than a dozen PhD candidates in my career.  It has been very rewarding to work with up-and-coming researchers, many of whom have had subsequent brilliant careers, to address important research questions in the clinical and research fields of melanoma.  We work hard to identify the most important research questions and have assembled an excellent team to address and prioritise them.

Australia has the highest incidents of melanoma in the world. One Australian is diagnosed with melanoma in Australia every 30 minutes and one Australian, despite recent breakthroughs in treatment for people with advanced melanoma, still dies every six hours. It is the second most common cancer in men and third most common in women. Through our team’s research, we are aiming to achieve zero deaths from melanoma.

We know from our experience at the world’s largest melanoma treatment and research centre, Melanoma Institute Australia, that in a significant proportion of cases, the clinical and pathological diagnosis of melanoma can be very challenging. Nigel’s research proposal is to use artificial intelligence-based tools to improve the accuracy of pathological diagnosis of melanoma which, in our extensive clinical experience, are misdiagnosed in a significant proportion.

My advice to PhD students, which I think is helpful in all aspects of life, is that if we want to achieve great things that make a difference, we should think big, be bold and be courageous. Don’t just lean in, leap in to work very hard to make it happen.

I think it’s very challenging for everyone juggling all the activities in life. However, getting the balance right is important for everyone including their family, outside work life and including supporting a PhD candidate. As someone who is battling a challenging cancer at present, I know and value how important all of these things, including work and family, are to me and always strive to make time for both.