Richard J. Payne FAA graduated with 1st class honours from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand in 2002. In 2003, he was awarded a Gates Scholarship to undertake his PhD at the University of Cambridge under the supervision of the late Professor Chris Abell FRS FMedSci. After his PhD, Richard moved to The Scripps Research Institute under the auspices of a Lindemann Postdoctoral Fellowship where he worked in the laboratory of Professor Chi-Huey Wong in the area of glycobiology. In 2008, he was recruited to the University of Sydney as a Lecturer of Organic within the School of Chemistry. Since 2015 he has held the position as Professor of Organic Chemistry and Chemical Biology and since 2020 has been NHMRC Leadership Fellow and Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Innovations in Peptide and Protein Science. Prof. Payne’s research focuses on the design and synthesis of complex biomolecules with a view to addressing important problems in biology and medicine. His lab is recognized for the development of synthetic and semi-synthetic technologies for the assembly of large polypeptides and proteins bearing post-translational modifications including glycosylation, lipidation, phosphorylation and sulfation. These methods have underpinned the discovery of modified peptide and protein drug leads for a range of diseases including anti-inflammatories, anti-thrombotics and anti-infectives. His research has been recognized by a number of awards including the Prime Minister’s Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year, HG Smith Medal, AJ Birch Medal and election as Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.