sociation Council on Hypertension, including the 2014 Lifetime Achieve-
ment Award. He has an extensive news media profile. In 2018 he was made a 
Member of the Order of Australia.
One of his research interests is the health benefits of male circumcision, lead-
ing to 130 of his publications. His interest in circumcision stemmed from 
developing a better (molecular) test for use in cervical screening. It was then 
when he saw the research showing that women were at lower risk of cervical 
cancer if their male partner was circumcised. He was the first to invent and 
then competitively patent of the first use of PCR for viral detection in 1987. 
After many years of effort the use of PCR for detection of high-risk HPV 
types has replaced pap smears in many major countries in the world. He runs 
he Circumcision Academy of Australia as Secretary.
In recent years he has been studying the molecular genetics and genomics of 
human longevity as well. His efforts, in collaboration with colleagues at the 
University of Hawaii, helped secure a US National Institutes of Health 5-year 
Center of Biomedical Research Excellence grant of US$15 million. 
Dr. Morris regards critical evaluation of manuscripts during the peer-review 
process as being integral to achieving the high standard required for a manu-
script to qualify for publication in a journal. He has extensive experience as 
a reviewer, having reviewed over 800 manuscripts in his 50+ year career. He 
believes that producing a worthwhile review on each occasion was helped 
by his skills in data evaluation and scientific writing as well as knowledge of 
the fields of research interest mentioned above. This has, moreover, helped 
the authors publish a higher-quality article. He has been glad to review man-
uscripts for the Urology Journal, particularly those involving male circum-
cision. 

Best Reviewer of the March-April 2022 issue - Brian J. Morris
Brian J. Morris

April 2022

Brian J. Morris, DSc PhD is Professor Emer-
itus in the School of Medical Sciences at the 
University of Sydney in Sydney, Australia, 
where he has been since 1978 after 3 years 
of postdoctoral studies in the USA. Dr. Mor-
ris expertise includes molecular biology and 
genetics, which he has applied to the fields 
of cardiovascular diseases and to longevity. 
One of his research themes has focused on 
molecular mechanisms that control renin 
gene expression and identifying a role for 
the intrarenal renin-angiotensin system in 
the etiology of essential hypertension. Dr. 
Morris has 446 academic publications, and 
547 conference abstracts. He has received 
major awards from the American Heart As-