Sebastian van Hal obtained his medical degree from The University of Cape Town, South Africa, in 1995. After working extensively in Africa and Europe, he moved to Australia and completed his training in Infectious Diseases and Microbiology. He is a Staff Specialist at the Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and a Conjoint Associate Professor at the School of Medicine, University of Western Sydney. He has published over a 100 peer reviewed papers focusing on the consequences and mechanisms of antibiotic resistance in Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecium. In 2014 he spent time at the Oxford Genomics Centre acquiring the skills required for translation of microbial genomics into hospital epidemiology and is responsible for this evolving service at RPAH. He is also an active member of AGAR (Australian Group of Antimicrobial Resistance) and AURA (Antimicrobial Use and Resistance in Australia) and ANZMIG (Australian New Zealand Mycology Interest Group) which have led to several prominent publications including the development of the Antifungal Consensus guidelines.
