Professor Wendy Erber is Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and a diagnostic haematologist.

Professor Erber graduated in Medicine with 1st class honours from the University of Sydney. She undertook her Haematology training at the Royal North Shore Hospital of Sydney and the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. In 2015 she was admitted as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.

In Oxford her leukaemia research led to Doctorate of Philosophy. She has held Consultant Haematologist posts in Western Australia where she was Clinical Director of the WA Centre for Pathology and Medical Research (PathCentre; 1997-2004) and in Cambridge, UK (Head of Department and Lecturer at the University of Cambridge; 2004-2011). From Cambridge she returned to Australia in 2011 to take up the appointment as Chair and Head of the School of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Western Australia and was Executive Dean of the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences for 4-years.

Professor Erber continues to be active in diagnostic and translational research in haematology. Her areas of interest are:

1. Pathological basis of fibrosis in myeloproliferative neoplasms;

2. Imaging flow cytometry and its use for detection of chromosomal abnromalities in immunophenotyped cells ("Immuno-flowFISH); patented invention and Eureka prize (2018) with a particular focus on haematological malignancies (including acute and chronic leukaemia; multiple myeloma)

3. Translation of biological discoveries for clinical pathology practice with an emphasis on haematological malignancies.

4. Patient blood management.

Throughout her professional career Professor Erber’s major interests have been diagnostic haematology, the adoption of new cutting-edge technologies, translating discoveries to improved diagnostic haematology practice and hence better management for patients, especially in the field of haematological malignancies. She has more than 250 publications in peer-reviewed journals, published 4 books and 20 book chapters. One of her books was Highly Commended in the British Medical Association book awards. She is an enthusiastic teacher, mentor and supervisor and contributes expertise locally and to resource-constrained countries. She established the highly successful Indian Ocean Rim Laboratory Haematology Congress. She is Chair of the Board of the International Council for Standardization in Haematology (2020 - current) and has recently completed a decade of srvice as Chair of the Research Committee of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Blood Transfusion. In 2018 she and her team won the Eureka Award for Innovative Use of Technologies, and in 2019, 2020 and 2023 was one of 4 finalists for the Scientist of the Year in the WA Premier Science Award. In 2015 she was elected to Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences and is the Haematology Scoeirty of Australia and New Zealand Pitney Travelling Fellow for 2025-2026.

Professor Erber was the 19th Dean, and first female, of the Faculty, a position she held from December 2015 - December 2019. During this time she oversaw UWA rise to Number 8 in the world in Clinical Medicine in the Academic Ranking of World Universities.

Professor Erber teaches undergraduates in blood and blood diseases, masters students in blood film morphology and postgraduate students in research (supervisor and mentor). 

Haematological malignancies.

Blood transfusion.